Second Time Round
by Anti-XYo
Summary: Ever wish you could change the past? When you're nothin' but a hood your regrets tend to build up over time. Two former delinquents go back in time to change the terrible future they helped create.
1. Past, The Point Of No Return

Second Time Round  
  
By ProFool  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the stuff that Marvel owns or the stuff that other people and companies own, but I will give you all my money for legal ownership of Marvel.   
  
Important: IF YOU CAN'T STAND LANCE AND/OR TODD GO NOW. Alright there's a few things you should know about this fic. First of it's based on a dream I had at the very end of 2003. So, I'm gonna have to remember that dream the whole time I'm writing this fic. Of course I don't remember the whole dream and I know it must have skipped around a lot, so a good portion of it's gonna be fill in the blank. Fun, fun, yes? Second I've read a few X-Men: Evolution comics (yes, they have those) some of Todd's past is revealed in them and my subconscious dragged that into the story. Messy, messy. Third this fic involves time travel, of course it was easy to understand in my dream, but everyone else gets to be confused by the little explanation down there Vv.  
  
Summery: Okay, this first part is based in the far future of X-men: Evolution that my subconscious made up. All the characters MIA and can be presumed dead except for two, but don't worry cause the majority of my dream took place in the past. That's what the dream was really about, two guys going back in time to try and change the future. Expect multiple character death, but not really... That's gonna need explaining...   
  
On the whole time travel issue: When they go back in time it's like in the comics (for those of you that read them) There wont be an older and a younger version at the same time. The guys that went back in time just take over the bodies of their younger selves, so they look the same, but they know what happened throughout the entire X-Men: Evolution series and beyond. Another thing there's no turning back once your in the past you stay there.  
  
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Todd opened the door into a musty old room allowing the dimming flashlight Lance carried to shine in. The room was covered in an inch thick layer of dust and obviously had not been disturbed since it's former owner, Forge, had deserted it in hopes of returning some day. Sadly that day would never come, several projects would remain unfinished for all eternity, until they too became dust.   
  
"I think this is it, yo." Todd stated flatly pushing a strand of long dirty hair out of his face. He stepped into the room and began searching for the one piece of machinery Forge had completed before the sentinels had taken him.   
  
Lance narrowed his eyes scanning the room suspiciously from the door frame "You sure he deactivated everything?" He asked, remembering the mechanics love for booby-traps.  
  
"He had to turn everything off to conserve and build up enough solar energy to power the device." Todd quoted mockingly as Lance aimed his flashlight at him. "You weren't payin' attention. You heard the words 'time travel' and said 'we'll do it' and off went your brain right down memory lane. Leavin' me to listen to instructions."  
  
Lance shrugged, "I was excited, it's not like you get handed a chance to go back in time every day. I mean people dream about this sort of thing, it's a second chance to make up for all the crap we screwed up when we were younger!" Lance exclaimed cheerfully. "We'll get to see the boarding house and Kitty and why arn't you excited?"  
  
"What if we screw up and make things worse?" Todd sighed as he turned the power back on. Immediately the room lit up, putting Lance's flashlight to shame. "We don't even know how far back this thing'll send us, yo."   
  
"That's why we both have to go, Toad, to stop each other from screwin' up too much and just think no matter how far back this thing sends us we'll still know what to expect." Lance said encouragingly while Todd tried to follow Forge's instructions on how to operate the machine.  
  
"That's what I'm afraid of, yo?" Todd muttered as he entered in access codes. Lance frowned grimly, now he understood losing people once was hard, but what if they knew what was coming and still couldn't save them? Sure they could change the future, but what about the inevitable. "Go stand over there." Todd said pointing to a large metal platform.  
  
Lance walked to his appointed place obediently. "Todd?" he asked without his former enthusiasm.  
  
Todd jumped up next to him on the platform, he flashed Lance a wicked grin. "No turnin' back now, we'll try, yo and besides there ain't nothin' better to do." He commented without a hint of regret in his voice.  
  
Lance looked at the machine reassured. "We could have blown stuff up." Lance quipped.  
  
"We will." Todd said with a smirk as the time traveling device activated.  
  
A bright explosion could be seen for miles as the machine ripped through the time space continuum, destroying everything within its blast range and sending Lance and Todd back in time.   
  
  
  
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The next chapter wont have Lance at all, but it will have Wanda and Scott and Jean! OH MY! Oh, yeah, Todd'll be there too. Little warning though, Todd was not happy camper before joining the Brotherhood. No, not really a sane camper either.  
  
Read, Review, Ask Questions, Send Death Threats, Click On Anti-XYo at the top, Repeat with more stories. Now I'm going to sleep. 


	2. One Crazy Day Back

Second Time Round  
  
Still, by: ProFool  
  
Disclaimer: Now, I could say, "I own Marvel comics" cause I have bought a few. Then I could say I own Todd cause I have a Todd model on top of my computer.   
  
Warning: X-Men: Evolution Comic spoilers in this one. If you haven't read the comic "Hearing Things" and you don't want to know about 'the bus incident' RUN! If your okay with some slight spoilers from comics that you may never read then go right ahead.  
  
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Todd's eyes snapped open, he wanted to figure out when he was as fast as possible. The first thing that caught his attention was his accelerated heart rate, the second was the semi-truck headed straight for the bus he was driving.   
  
Todd knew instantly what was going on, this was one day he had tried to forget throughout his entire life. It was the day he'd decided to end it all and take as many of his tormentors with him as a hijacked bus could carry. It was also the day Todd found out there were others out there like him. Scott Summers pulled hard on the steering wheel forcing it to veer away from the truck, but Scott had forgotten the cliff.  
  
Last time Scott had knocked over a street light with his powers. It had stopped the bus by flipping it on its side, the only one to suffer any major injuries had been Todd. At the time Todd wished they'd just kill him, but looking back a few cracked ribs seemed like quite good deal for a new lease on life.   
  
This time Todd decided for an even better deal, he slammed on the brakes and veered back onto the road just as the truck passed. Todd couldn't help smiling at himself, he'd already managed to stop a school bus from flipping over and he'd only been in the past for about two minutes tops.  
  
Scott reached over and pulled the keys out of the transmission. Jean was busily trying to assist the authorized school bus driver in removing a thick layer of slime from his face. In the back the students were slowly recovering one boy was sobbing softly trying to conceal the tears in his eyes, a dazed girl asked if it was over, another whipped out her cell phone. The bus driver had finally regained his composure with Jean's help.  
  
"Everyone, single file, off the bus." He ordered and the students obeyed. As the girl with the cell phone passed by she half whispered to the driver that the police were on their way. Todd could hear the sirens already.  
  
Getting arrested wasn't very high up on Todd's to do list, so lept from the driver seat and out the door. There were only two flaws in his escape plan, Jean and Scott. Jean stopped Todd in mid air for a split second, but that was all it took for Scott to tackle him. Todd didn't fight back too much against Scott, for fear of knocking the kid's glasses off.  
  
When the police arrived at the scene, they quickly pulled Scott away from Todd. Fighting the police was a different story entirely. Todd was still getting accustomed to being fifteen and weak again. He managed to kick the first cop off of him without too much trouble. His partner rushed over to prevent Todd's escape, but Todd lept out of the way and used his tongue to trip the officer.   
  
Todd crouched preparing to make his getaway by jumping over the students that had formed a human barrier while watching the fight. Unfortunately Todd hadn't been paying due attention to the first officer, the older man had crept up behind the young mutant, a swift hit with his nightstick knocked Todd to the ground unconscious.  
  
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Todd's eyes fluttered open, two full-grown men at least double his size, were half dragging him down a long corridor. Todd moved to hit one of the men only to realize his arms were tightly bound to his sides by a straitjacket. There was no point in trying to fight the men, what he needed was an escape plan.  
  
Slowly Todd scanned the corridor: barred windows, thick metal doors, almost everything else was solid concrete, except a large metal vault in the center of the room. Todd continued looking at the vault, trying to figure out what it could be used for. There was a lot of machinery connected to it, almost as if the walls were meant to move. Then something of true importance caught Todd's eye the roof of the vault was connected to the ventilation shaft; that meant an escape route for those that could reach the ceiling.   
  
As the two men led Todd down another hallway, a new thought troubled him. Why hook up a ventilation system to a vault? Unless that thing wasn't a vault at all, what if it was a cell? One of the men reached opened up a door at the end of the hallway. It opened to reveal a low security cell, equipped with nothing more than most prison cells, but it did have a large barred window and it was hooked up to the ventilation system.  
  
The two men unceremoniously deposited Todd inside and left without ever noticing he'd regained consciousness. Todd managed to get back on his feet; despite the fact he couldn't use his arms. Todd wondered a bit if Houdini was a mutant, as he used his tongue to free himself from the straitjacket.   
  
The barred windows made for an effective ladder that brought Todd up to the same hight as the air vent. He propelled himself across to it feet first smashing in the grill, then he pulled himself out again and proceeded head first. Except for the small amount of light that managed to filter through the dingy window panes and work its way past the grills, Todd was in the dark. Todd felt he could find his way back to the main corridor, but he had no clue where to go after that.  
  
After a few minutes of crawling flat on his stomach, Todd came across a section of the ventilation system that led straight down. It led into the large vault-like cell from the corridor he'd first regained consciousness in. Getting over the gap wouldn't prove too much trouble, but Todd couldn't help wondering about who needed such a cell.   
  
Todd didn't want to ask, he didn't want to even guess, but deep down he knew who had been living in that wretched cell for eight years. Todd shook his sadly, she hated him, always, she had chosen death over him . . . and yet, couldn't he change all that.   
  
"Wanda?" Todd called softly half choking on dust. He knew he couldn't perform any rescue attempt now, but he could promise her one would come. Give her hope. No one answered for a couple beats. He tried again a bit louder, "Wanda?"  
  
Finally Wanda answered, "Who's there? Pietro?" she sounded unsure, but hopeful.  
  
"No, but he's a friend of mine, I'm Todd." He told her gaining some confidence. True Pietro and he weren't friends yet, but he didn't see any harm in bending the truth for a good cause.  
  
"Have you come to let me out?" She called up excitedly. Todd was more reluctant to answer this time. "Todd?" She asked worriedly.  
  
"I can't now, but later I'll come back with Pietro." Todd said hurriedly, hoping she wouldn't get mad at him.  
  
Wanda was silent for a while. "I can wait." She said at length. Todd cringed at the disappointment in her voice.  
  
"I have to go now Wanda, I promise I'll come back." Todd swore before dragging himself over the gap.  
  
"Goodbye, Todd." Wanda sighed sadly as he departed.  
  
Todd crawled onward determinedly although he didn't know where he was going. He came to a fork in the ventilation system and looked down both tunnels. The left one ended in a fan that meant an exit if he could remove said fan. Todd turned down the right tunnel and began pushing himself feet first toward the fan. Once he came to the fan, Todd flipped him onto his back to brace himself.   
  
Fortunately the fan blades weren't moving very fast, and years of exposure to the element had left it rusted and easily broken by a couple good kicks. With the fan gone Todd dropped down into an alleyway. "Bet Lance didn't spend his first day back in an asylum." Todd thought to himself as he tried to wipe off some of the dust that had accumulated on his trip through the air vent. He cast a quick glance back at the building before he set off to put as much distance as he could between it and him.  
  
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Next Chapter: Lance! If he wasn't in an asylum what was he doing?  
  
Read, Review, Ask Questions, Send Death Threats, Click On Anti-XYo at the top, Repeat with more stories. Now I'm going to sleep.  
  
Review Response: I only got four so I can respond to each person individually.  
  
Dark Jaded Rose: You're a Fred fan? That's awesome! I like Fred, I think he's the most stable guy in the Brotherhood. He seems like the strong silent type that's there to make sure no one gets hurt. Hope you're enjoying the story, of course Freddy will be in it later.  
  
Todd Fan: I read the story that you killed Forge in, my favorite part was all the name Pyro came up with for the kid. Yes, sadly I killed Forge, but he'll be alive later on...in the past. How does that work? I'm not gonna hurt my brain thinking about it, but he'll be back. He's in Middleverse right now of course.  
  
Tom: Hope this was fast enough. Would have been done earlier, but I couldn't find my recording of "Hex Factor". I wanted to watch it to get a better idea of how the asylum was set up. Looked through all my tapes, then of course I found it in the VCR. Now I live in fear that I shall be killed by an avalanche of tapes that I've stacked on top of my TV.  
  
Snitter in Rivendell: Voodoo is one of the few O.C.s I approve of. As for Todd paying attention while Lance wasn't. Lance wanted to go back and see Kitty, he didn't care how. Sure he wants to repair past mistakes, but a lot of his mistakes involved losing Kitty. Todd toned down a lot over the years he's a lot more serious, you'll see why later. 


	3. Remember The Apples

Second Time Round  
  
I'm still: ProFool  
  
Disclaimer noun a statement disclaiming something, especially responsibility.  
  
Important: I'm gonna say Lance's power is geokinesis (he can manipulate the earth with his mind) cause there is no way he's doing all that earth manipulation by sending seismic pulse waves through his hands. On XME his hands are balled into fists pointed at the sky half the time, and sometimes he uses his foot. So, for this fic at least he has geokinesis, he uses his hands and feet to help him focus, like Jean. 'Nother thing Kitty doesn't have her powers yet, this is pre "X Impulse."   
  
Random Author Note: If you watch "The X Impulse" you'll see Lance has two friends. One's Griff, he's the blond with the hat that Lance threatens. The other guy with shoulder length brown hair has no name, so we will call him Rick. The girls that Kitty dislikes are Amy, the taller one with shorter blond hair, and Riley with brown wavy hair.  
  
To Half'n'Half: Remember the Apples!  
  
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Lance woke up under the old apple tree that resided behind Deerfield High. He'd slept there over night using his jacket as a pillow. Lance sat up and shook some of the collected dew out of his hair. Lance tried to think back to the last time he'd fallen asleep under an apple tree, it must have been after leaving his last real foster home. That meant before he met Kitty and if that was so he'd just have to go introduce himself.  
  
With that thought in mind, Lance headed around to the front entrance of the school. He noted that the office and theater were still intact. As he approached the front steps, he realized he had no recollection of what his first period was, while he was contemplating this a couple of his old friends walked up to him. The only problem was Lance couldn't remember their names.   
  
"Hey, Lance." Rick greeted.  
  
"So, what's the new plan?" Griff asked expectantly.  
  
"You'll see, follow me." Lance growled authoritatively as he led them back to his apple tree. He had no idea which plans they were referring to, but Lance doubted it was the same one he was thinking of. It was very simple, first give these two idiots something to do, then go find Kitty.  
  
"Well, I followed, but I ain't seeing anything." Griff complained when Lance stopped under the tree. Lance glared at him for a moment, then he activated his powers. Rick and Griff instinctively covered their heads just as they were bombarded by apples. "What the heck was that for?" Griff asked angrily.  
  
"You two idiots are going to sell these apples." Lance explained holding up one of the apples.  
  
"What about you?" Rick asked picking a stray leaf out of his hair.  
  
"I got the apples down. You sell 'em." Seeing that his response hadn't satisfied them, Lance added, "I'm working on a bigger plan, so I figured you two could do this in the meantime." Rick nodded and began picking up apples and Griff followed muttering a few choice complaints under his breath.  
  
Lance didn't stick around to monitor their actions. He needed to find Kitty to confirm that this all wasn't some odd dream. Lance worked his way into the school and began roaming the halls, he wanted to wait for Kitty at her locker, but of course he couldn't remember where it was. This whole not remembering things was getting real frustrating.   
  
Lance gave up looking for Kitty's locker when the lunch bell rang, maybe he'd find her at the cafeteria or the outside lunch area. Lance was quite pleased with himself when he found the lunch area first try. He didn't see Kitty, but Lance did spot the two guys whose names still escaped him.  
  
"Lance. These apples aren't selling!" Griff complained as Lance continued to scan the room for Kitty.  
  
"Most of them are rotten." Rick pointed out. "They're all mushy and grosse."  
  
"Then make applesauce." Lance snapped before leaving the two boys to continue his search.  
  
"What's his problem today?" Rick asked as Lance left.   
  
"I dunno," Griff said as a devious grin crept over his face, "but I do know how to mash these apples."   
  
Lance slumped down at a vacant lunch table, maybe Kitty wasn't at school today. Maybe today was the day she had gotten her powers, no she had just gotten them the day they met and that was around midterms. If Kitty didn't know she was a mutant, then would she even give a guy like him the time of day. Suddenly Lance wasn't so eager to find Kitty.  
  
"Hey Amy, looks like Kitty finally got released from the office." Lance heard Riley laugh right behind him. Lance turned around to see Kitty walking just a few feet away.  
  
"Like, what's up with the two morons on the roof?" Amy asked spotting Rick and Griff just above Kitty.   
  
Lance wondered the same thing for a moment before realizing that they were about to start chucking rotten apples at the students and Kitty was a prime target. Lance jumped up yelling, "Watch out!" He snatched Kitty out of the way just in time to get pegged by a rotten apple himself.  
  
"Hey! Like, watch where you're going creep!" Kitty exclaimed pushing out of Lance's arms.  
  
"Sorry, but they were about to hit you with a rotten apple." Lance explained trying to keep his voice neutral.  
  
Kitty noticed the now mashed apple slowly sliding down the back of his jacket. "Oh, like, thanks uh . . . "   
  
"Names Lance, I couldn't just stand there and let you get hit." Lance told her brightly, but Kitty could see a certain sadness in his eyes. They almost seemed too old for him. Something about those deep brown eyes made him look guilty.   
  
"I'm Kitty, so like, when do you think those guys are gonna stop throwing apples?" Kitty asked conversationally.  
  
"They'll stop when they run out of apples, unless the principal gets to them first." Lance said gesturing toward the principal that was currently being pummeled by rotten apples.  
  
"For some reason I, like, totally don't think that's going to happen." Kitty giggled just as the bell rang for fifth period. "Like, that's the bell and I didn't even get lunch." She sighed slightly annoyed.  
  
"Ya wants an apple?" Lance asked with a smile.  
  
Kitty laughed again and shook her head. "No, I, like, need to get to class."  
  
"I'll see you tomorrow?" Lance asked hopefully, Kitty thought he almost seemed worried.  
  
"Akay." Kitty said happily before heading off to class.  
  
Lance watched her go, smiling stupidly, then he got smacked in the face by another apple. Lance wiped the applesauce off his face to reveal a scowl. At least they can't bother me when they're in detention for a month. A small tremor shook the building knocking Rick and Griff off the roof and on top of the principal.  
  
Lance smirked over at them catching a couple of glares from Rick and Griff as the principal dragged them off to the office. Lance decided it would be a good idea to move his duffel bag away from the apple tree and then find a very cheap laundry mat to wash his apple juiced clothes, but first he really needed to stop by the boys' locker room rinse some of the apple gunk out of his hair.  
  
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Next Chapter: How much will Todd change the course of events, that are entailed in "Strategy X"?  
  
Read, Review, Ask Questions, Send Death Threats, Click On Anti-XYo at the top, Repeat with more stories.   
  
Review Responses:   
  
Woot Woot two Reviews since I last updated, maybe I'm updating too fast.  
  
Wanda's sixteen same as Pietro, and Todd is going to help save Wanda later. In fact the events in Chapter two are going to haunt Todd throughout the rest of the story.  
  
I just want Dark Jaded Rose to know that they Rock Our Socks here at Anti-XYo, cause you review almost all our stories! 


	4. The First To Join

Second Time Round  
  
ProFool  
  
Disclaimer: It got struck by lightning and hurtled down into the Atlantic Ocean. Lessons learned, don't leave your disclaimers under the care of Ray Park.  
  
Note: This chapter starts right after Todd runs away from Duncan and Scott's fight in "Strategy X" It's a few weeks after the last Todd chapter of course, since then he's been trying to maintain a low profile. The problem is food costs money and a guy can't live off bugs alone.  
  
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Todd leapt down one of the alleyways that were quite common around downtown Bayville. He sprang up onto the wall and slipped, normally this wouldn't have been an issue, but as Todd slid back to the ground the two jocks that had been chasing him entered the alley.  
  
"Looks like you've reached a dead end, freak!" The number 72 shouted, they had caught Todd stealing wallets just minutes before and had left Duncan to deal with Scott while they finished of Todd.  
  
"Ya, we'll teach you to keep your slimy webbed fingers away from normal peoples' wallets!" The jock 77 yelled, he was shorter than his friend and followed slightly behind, despite the fact he was still considerably larger than Todd.   
  
Todd began to panic as he watched the first meathead yank a length of metal pipe out of a near by dumpster. A sense of deja vu swept over him, Todd knew what was going to happen next. A wicked smile broke across Todd's face and the jock 77 took a step back.  
  
"I think we should go, Tom." He muttered looking around suspiciously.  
  
"Go?" Tom asked skeptically, "We haven't even gotten the wallets back yet, Cole!"  
  
"Somethin's not right, just look at him. He's crazy, just like they say!" Cole said backing further out of the alley, "No, sane man smiles when someone's comin at 'em with a pipe!"  
  
"He's not crazy, he's just a frea-" Tom stopped mid-word as the metal pipe was pulled out of his hand by some unseen force.   
  
Both mastheads stood stalk still as they watched the length of pipe hover a few feet over their heads. Then suddenly it plunged back down and struck Tom on the forehead. Cole took off running before his friend had a chance to hit the ground, but the pipe flew after him and smacked Cole in the back of the head.   
  
Todd knew they weren't dead, but the puddles of blood forming beneath their heads gave him no comfort. He watched Magneto descend from the sky. His battle attire added a certain menacing quality to his appearance. Magneto's cape billowed dramatically in the wind and his ever present helmet cast his face into a dark shadow from which only his piercing blue eyes were visible.  
  
So long ago, on this day Todd had thought Magneto to be a god of sorts or an angel perhaps. Now, however, common sense was all that kept Todd from trying to kill him.  
  
Magneto remained aloft as he began his recruitment speech. "On the streets there is no escape from human prejudice and there is no fighting it alone. These pathetic humans hate and fear you because you were born different, because we are the future. I am Magneto, join me, fight beside me." Magneto offered Todd his hand.  
  
"I will." Todd muttered coldly, as he rose to his feet without taking Magneto's hand. Magneto continued on with information Todd already knew from previous encounters with the Master of Magnetism.   
  
Todd was lost in his own memories of how he had once literally jumped at Magneto's invitation to join the Brotherhood. Todd had once sworn he'd give his life for Magneto, only to find himself left behind while the others were taken to what should have been a sanctuary. Since then Todd's dislike had grown until it turned to hate. It seemed this way with all that had the misfortune of meeting Magneto.  
  
"Are you listening, Toad?" Magneto asked, finally noticing the younger mutant's far off look.  
  
"Yeah, I go see Miss Darkholme tomorrow mornin', yo?" Toad said with a false grin. He watched Magneto nod then rise up back into the sky where one of his metallic traveling orbs waited.   
  
Todd casually strolled out of the alleyway taking time to kick both jocks as he left. Todd walked with his back to the wind until he reached Bayville High. The football game was over, he walked up to Scott. "Uh, thanks. Really, y'know?"   
  
Scott was busy watching Jean tend to Duncan as the ambulance carted him off, but he stopped to glare down at Todd. "Yeah." Scott muttered before walking away.   
  
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Todd perched nervously on the edge of his chair, he didn't know why Mystique scared him so much, she just always had. Truth is he'd rather fight Magneto than Mystique. Even now he kept his eyes downcast as she paced the room.  
  
"Now, Toad, shall we talk about your new friend Scott Summers?" Miss Darkholme asked raising an eyebrow.  
  
Todd knew where this was heading, to the institute, then probably the asylum again. "What about him? He's cool, but he thinks I'm crazy, yo?" Todd told her chancing a glance to see how she reacted.  
  
Miss Darkholme's mouth hung slightly agape as she tried to think of a way around that little issue. "Well, we need to know more about the others." She said as she gripped Todd's shoulder, "Much more."  
  
Todd shivered involuntarily, she was freaky, but Todd could still escape the institute mission yet. "The others think I'm crazy to, Red and Baldy; he's the one that sent me to the asylum."He protested. For a moment Todd thought he'd said too much, but then Darkholme's whole demeanor changed.  
  
"I see." Darkholme muttered to herself as she took a step away from Todd. She looked out the window seemingly lost in her own thoughts. "We'll discuss this more later, for now take your house key and return to your classes."  
  
Todd smiled smugly to himself while her back was turned. He snatched the key off of her desk with his tongue and hopped out of the office. "Who knew so much good could come from bein' sent to an asylum?" Todd asked himself as he stuffed his key to the Boardinghouse deep into his pocket and headed off to first period.  
  
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Next Chapter: Kitty gets her powers, Lance gets recruited, Todd gets to say, "What took ya so long?"  
  
Read, Review, Ask Questions, Send Death Threats, Click On Anti-XYo at the top, Repeat with more stories.   
  
Review Responses:   
  
Hope this chapter didn't take to long. I was sitting around trying to remember what happened at this part. Then I remembered half of it wrote it down, and remembered the rest and had to go back a fix multiple things. So, Lance isn't the only one with memory problems. Don't worry I remember stuff better as I go along. 


	5. Standing On Solid Ground

Second Time Round  
  
ProFool, yo?  
  
Disclaimer: If I owned Lance I'd make him go around and throw off all the Richter scales, but I don't own him so I'll just have to throw off the Richter scales by myself.  
  
Note: these are for flash forwards; memories of what we'd consider the future   
  
For Mystique if it say Miss Darkholme that's her disguise obviously same goes for Risty later on. If I screw up and say Mystique when she's in public it's also pretty safe to assume that she's in disguise.   
  
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Lance lay on trundle bed staring at the ceiling in the Pryde's basement. He hadn't intended to let Kitty know that his last foster family had kicked him out. She made a big deal about how he couldn't live on the street, but even then Lance never thought Kitty's parents would actually invite him into their house.   
  
Usually Lance would have been asleep an hour ago, but tonight he just couldn't get to sleep. He felt as though he was forgetting something important. Lance was running through the things he was going to do tomorrow in his head in an attempt to jar his memory when he heard Kitty scream. Lance was out of bed and on his feet so fast even Quicksilver would have given him credit, but before he could take one step toward the door Kitty fell through the ceiling and landed on his bed.  
  
"Kitty?" Lance asked in mild shock as he sat down next to her on the bed.  
  
"I-I fell, like, right through the ceiling." She cried burying her face in Lance's shoulder.  
  
"Kitty it's okay, everything's gonna be alright." Lance told Kitty pulling her into a gentle hug. Just as her father slammed the door to the basement open. "Or not." Lance muttered as he caught the astonished expression on Mr. Pryde's face.   
  
"Get away from my daughter!" Mr. Pryde bellowed as his wife entered the room. Lance stood up promptly and took a couple steps away from Kitty and the bed.  
  
"Honey, what happened?" Mrs. Pryde asked as she rushed over to her still sobbing daughter.  
  
"She just fell into my bed." Lance explained, after a moment even he realized how stupid that sounded.   
  
Lance's last comment had done nothing to lighten Mr. Pryde's temper. "This is how you repay hospitality? With lies-"  
  
"I'm not lying!" Lance shouted shaking the entire house. As the house grew still everyone in it became silent.  
  
A look of bewilderment covered Mr. Pryde's face. "Get out of my house freak!" He ordered taking a stand in between Lance and his family. Lance looked over at Kitty who stared back at him pleadingly.   
  
Lance frowned understandingly as he grabbed his duffle bag and left.  
  
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Lance stood in the middle of a large field venting his rage. Around him the earth split and shook violently to match the turmoil in his head. After several minutes he stopped and quietly surveyed the damage that he'd done. The once simple walk into the field was now an obstacle course of mounds and fissures. Lance stood there a long time just thinking about his past.  
  
An older Avalanche walked through the ruins that had been a battlefield only moments ago and before that it had been the largest refuge for free mutants on the planet. He examined the smouldering wreckage of a former Sentinel with a critical eye as he passed it by.  
  
There was no emotion portrayed on his face except for a dull unrelenting sadness that always haunted his eyes and slight concern that had lined his brow since the battle had started. Of course Avalanche had not fought in the battle itself, no all the mutants were killed and he was left to make sure none remained hidden in amongst the ruble.  
  
"Hey Rockhead! Hurry up!" Sabertooth growled behind him. Avalanche turned to follow his field leader back to their former vantage point. "The Sentinel's'll be back in five. Shake whatever scums hidin' down there outta their ratholes." Sabertooth ordered.  
  
Avalanche rolled his eyes once before letting them slip back into his head. He concentrated on the area before him and unleashed an earthquake strong enough to level the few buildings that had remained standing. It took Avalanche a moment to recover after influencing such a large area of land.  
  
Mutants had fled from their hiding places when the quake struck and now the Sentinels would be able to make another pass and finish the mutants that had avoided the battle with them before. Sabertooth watched the skies with an almost eager aspect on his face as the Sentinels reappeared in the distance.   
  
Avalanche on the other hand turned away from the incipient slaughter with a look of disgust.   
  
"Oh, you might wanna watch this one Rockhead." Sabertooth told him with a sneer. Avalanche started to walk away in response. "Have it your way, her funeral." Sabertooth quipped wickedly.  
  
Avalanche whipped his head around and spotted Kitty helping others escape and he froze. He just stood there and watched her get hit by the Sentinel's plasma blast and then she was gone.  
  
  
  
Lance broke out of his reverie at the sound of Kitty's voice behind him "Lance?" She asked as he turned around looking more sullen than ever, but still he couldn't help smiling when he saw her. "Did you do this?" She asked motioning to the shredded field.  
  
"Yeah, I just needed to blow off some steam y'know?" Lance told her looking around the messy field again, "Guess I got a little carried away."  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?" Kitty asked as she tried to take Lance by the hand but ended up phasing through it.  
  
"You would have called me a freak and ran away." Lance told her without meeting Kitty's eyes.  
  
"That's what I'm doing now." Kitty muttered to herself, then she took Lance by the arm and told him, "Like, after you left, Lance, two..." She paused searching for the word.  
  
"Mutants?" Lance asked glancing down at her.  
  
"Yeah, like that's what they said we were. Anyway they came and they, like, wanted to take me to some Institute. They told my parents I could phase through solid matter. My parents thought they were, like, crazy, but I told them it was true. Then I asked if you could go to the Institute with me and the old guy said no. I guess he, like, went to the Social Services and they already found you a new home in Bayville. So, I said I had to go to the bathroom and I phased through the wall and, like, found you." Kitty explained hurriedly, while Lance listened intently.  
  
After a moment of thought Lance asked, "Will you go with me Kitty?"  
  
Kitty was startled to the point of phasing as she took a step back. "I-I can't leave! What about my parents?" She protested.  
  
"Your parents might send you away to that institute." Lance reminded her.  
  
"I'll go with you if I can." Kitty promised, though she seemed very unsure. Lance took her hand again and she smiled a bit more reassured.  
  
"I'm sure it can be arranged." A low seductive voice commented from behind them.  
  
Lance and Kitty turned around to spot Mystique in her Ms. Darkholme guise standing on one of the small ridges Lance had formed. "And you are?" Lance asked even though he knew the answer.  
  
Mystique stepped off the ridge and shifted back into her true form. "Your new advisor. I've made an opening for you at Bayville High. I have much to teach you, my young Avalanche."  
  
"I wont go with you," Lance told her flat out, "unless Kitty's going too."  
  
"It shouldn't be to much of a problem, I am the principal at Bayville High and the owner of the Brotherhood of Bayville's boardinghouse. Your housing and food would be provided for you along with training for your new powers." Mystique explained.  
  
Kitty stayed quiet, she felt that going back to her parents wasn't an option. She needed to learn more about her powers and Lance the only person that really seemed to understand her at the moment. "I'll go, but I, like, have to tell my parents, they'll be worried."  
  
Mystique frowned slightly. "Our flight will be leaving soon and I have to get you a ticket. Could you explain over the phone?" Mystique asked hoping she wouldn't have to handle the girls parents and risk a confrontation with Xavier.  
  
Kitty was actually a bit relieved by this option, she wasn't really sure she'd be able to look her father in the eye after running away this morning.   
  
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"Hello, who's this?" Mrs. Pryde answered the phone nervously, while her husband watched expectantly.  
  
"Like, hello, mom?" Kitty asked from the other end.  
  
"Kitty! Are you okay honey? Where are you?" Mrs. Pryde questioned trying not to sound to exited.  
  
"I'm, like, fine. I'm at the airport with Lance." Kitty explained.  
  
"The airport?" Mrs. Pryde exclaimed.  
  
Mr. Pryde took the phone. "Kitty I want you to come home, we can pretend like this whole thing never happened." He pleaded.  
  
Kitty shut her eyes for a moment wishing she could just wake up and find out this was all a bad dream. "No, Dad, I cant...I'm going someplace where there's other like me, where they can help me. Please try to understand. I'll keep in touch." She told him sadly.  
  
"Just remember your mother and I are always here for you." Mr. Pryde sighed handing the phone back to his wife.  
  
"We love you Kitty and we know you'll make the right choices." Mrs. Pryde assured her daughter.  
  
"I love you too." Kitty said before hanging up. She walked out of the phone booth and looked at Lance. "Is something wrong? You don't look to good."  
  
Lance smiled at her weakly. "I'm just remembering; I don't do well when it comes to flying." He explained as they headed over to where Mystique was waiting with their tickets.  
  
"You've flown before?" Kitty asked curiously.   
  
Lance could have kicked himself at this point in time he'd never even left the state. "Once." He lied.  
  
"Really, where to?" Kitty asked as they boarded the flight.  
  
"Err...It was at one of those air shows. Y'know when they take people up for free?" Lance improvised.  
  
"Like, I didn't know they did that." Kitty said sounding slightly perplexed.  
  
"Yeah, I think it has something to do with my powers, cause I'm fine with roller coasters and stuff like that. I just can't take being that far away from the ground for to long." Lance informed her changing the subject.  
  
"Good to know." Miss Darkholme inserted.  
  
"I hope my mutation doesn't do anything weird like that." Kitty added with a slight shutter.  
  
"Don't worry Kitty, seeing as you've had your powers the shortest amount of time you'll be my prime student." Miss Darkholme said reassuringly.  
  
"What are the other student like?" Kitty asked as the plain took off.  
  
"Well, currently there's only one other student at the boarding house, but we're looking forward to a few more as soon as there ready." Miss Darkholme told them sounding a bit more aloof.  
  
"Great." Lance groaned, "Now if you'll excuse me I'll be hiding out in the restroom for the remainder of this flight."  
  
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Mystique walked into the boarding house followed by Lance and Kitty. "Toad, get in here and meet your new team mates!" She shouted expectantly.  
  
Toad jumped down from the top of the staircase, causing Kitty to phase back through the door she had just shut. Lance opened the door and let Kitty back in.  
  
"Sorry, yo." Todd muttered looking slightly confused, "I thought you were only gonna get one."  
  
"Yes, well, I didn't expect to find Miss Pryde, but she'll make a good edition to the team." Mystique told him, then she turned back to Kitty and Lance. "Follow me I'll show you your rooms."  
  
Kitty slipped past Todd careful not to make any sort of physical contact, while Lance and Todd lingered behind a bit.   
  
"You brought valley?" Todd asked skeptically.  
  
"Your so short." Lance laughed.  
  
"I've always been short, yo? Kinda like how you've always been Kitty obsessed." Todd quipped as he hopped upstairs.  
  
"So, how have things been going here?" Lance asked as he followed Todd.  
  
"Bad news everyone thinks I'm crazy, good news I got to see Wanda." Todd said with a smirk.  
  
"What did you do?" Lance asked looking a bit worried.  
  
"Don't worry, it'll be better in the long run, yo?" Todd told him as they caught up with Mystique.  
  
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Next Chapter will have some Rogue, annoying X-men and Kitty saying the word 'icksome' in reference to Todd.  
  
Read, Review, Ask Questions, Send Death Threats, Click On Anti-XYo at the top, Repeat with more stories.   
  
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I have a few very loyal fans and as long as they review I write and even if you guys stop reviewing I'll probably still write cause I hate leaving things unfinished. Still you guys Rock! 


	6. The Brotherhood of Rogue's

Second Time Round  
  
Still, by: ProFool   
  
Disclaimer: I am a professional fool, not some second rate fool that puts up real disclaimers.  
  
Note: They all talk in weird ways, forgive me if I screw up the way one of the characters talk. I only have an Australian and a British slang dictionary right now and Southern accents have always given me trouble.  
  
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"Like, what is their problem?" Kitty fumed angrily as she walked up to Lance and Todd after school.  
  
"The X-Men givin' you a rough times again?" Todd asked.  
  
"Yeah, like, I just don't get why they only bother me. I mean they've never tried to recruit you or Lance. It's like they think I belong on their team." Kitty huffed angrily.  
  
"Just say the word Kitty and I'll knock Summer's lights out." Lance laughed, "That'll get the message across."  
  
"No, I, like, don't want you to get in a fight over it." Kitty sighed, "I just want them to, like, leave me alone. I mean they're not all bad Kurt's kinda okay, I guess."  
  
"Y'know, he's really a blue furry guy with a tail, yo?" Todd told her, receiving a look of absolute shock from Kitty.  
  
Lance frowned slightly as he realized the X-Men must have been really starting to bug her. "C'mon we need to get your mind off of the X-Men, me and Toad'll take ya to the mall." Lance told Kitty.  
  
"Really?" Kitty asked perking up some. It wasn't very often that she could drag the boys to the mall and them volunteering simply never occurred. She looked over at Todd for confirmation.  
  
"Yeah, sure, Mystique isn't going to be back until late anyway. We can walk to the mall, go shoe shopping and walk back to the Boardin' House without her askin' where we were, yo?" Todd affirmed though he didn't sound half as excited as Kitty did about spending the rest of the day in a shoe store. Though his words were lackluster, they were enough to get Kitty to set off half dragging Lance as she headed for the Bayville Mall.  
  
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"And then after the shoe store we can go to menswear, cause you guys, like, totally need some new outfits, and after that we can stop by the pet store. Oh! We can get some ice cream before we go home!" Kitty rambled on happily as the Brotherhood entered the Bayville Mall.  
  
"Whatever you wanna do, Kitty." Lance told her approvingly. "Right, Toad?" He asked Todd, who seemed to be staring at some new display in the center of the mall. "What are you looking at?" Lance enquired, while he tried to pinpoint the place Todd was watching.  
  
"Your jeep, yo?" Todd muttered under his breath.   
  
For the first time Lance noticed the large green jeep parked in the middle of the mall plaza. It was his jeep, of course it was a lot cleaner and newer than Lance remembered, but he did remember winning it in a contest and how he'd won it.   
  
"Hey Kitty, you and Toad go to the shoe store without me, I'll catch up." Lance stated as he walked up to the jeep. It was one of those contests where whoever keeps their hand on the car the longest won it. Quite a few people already had their hand on the car, but that was about to change. Lance handed his entry fee over to the man running the contest and put his hand on his jeep. He waited a few minutes so no one would get suspicious, then he jolted the foundation knocking all the other combatants off their feet. The only person that had managed to hang on was Lance, who sat back and smiled as he filed out forms, while the others wondered what exactly had just happened.  
  
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"Did you feel that?" Kitty asked Todd when she felt the shoe store shake from Lance's jeep winning tremor.  
  
"Feel what?" Todd responded trying to nonchalantly steady a shelf that had threatened to topple over.  
  
"I think we should go check on Lance." Kitty said as she headed toward the exit.  
  
Todd hopped after her. "I'm sure he's fine, but if it means ya wanna leave the shoe store, then I'm all for checkin' on Lance, yo?" He told Kitty with a sly smile.  
  
Kitty half-frowned down at Todd's decrepit shoes, she had really wanted to find him a new pair, but Lance was more important than shoes. "Alright, we'll go find Lance and if he's not in trouble he can help me find you new shoes." She told Todd.  
  
Todd looked slightly annoyed by this new proposition, as he wondered why Kitty was trying to arrange a new ensemble for him. Todd followed Kitty obediently as she led them back to where they had left Lance. They were about halfway between the shoe store and mall plaza when Lance found them.  
  
"Hey, there you guys are!" Lance greeted them, "I ran over to menswear, but I didn't see you, so I came back this way and you'll never guess what I won!"  
  
"What?" Kitty asked excitedly.   
  
"A jeep!" Lance exclaimed.   
  
"Wow, like, a real jeep?" Kitty asked in disbelief.  
  
"Ya." Lance assured her.   
  
"We, like, totally need to celebrate!" Kitty shouted. "We could go to the shoe stor-"  
  
"How 'bout ice cream?" Todd interjected before Kitty could finish. "We're right by the food court."  
  
"Sounds good." Lance agreed quickly before Kitty could bring up anything involving expensive shoes.  
  
"Okay, like, you guys go grab us a table, I'll get the ice cream." Kitty told them as she headed off to the ice cream shop.   
  
Lance and Todd picked out a table in the corner of the food court and sat down. "I don't see nothin' wrong with these shoes." Todd muttered to himself, while he looked down at his faded sneakers. Their laces were tattered and frayed and what remained of the soles was held together with duck tape. "They're just broken in, that's all."  
  
"Yeah," Lance agreed, "I was just thinking, if we got the jeep today doesn't that mean Mystique's gonna bring Rogue in tonight?"  
  
Todd's eyes went wide for a second. "What're we gonna do, yo?" He asked as his worries about new shoes were replaced by a new set of Rogue worries.  
  
"I dunno, I was kinda thinkin' we could follow Kitty's lead." Lance suggested, "They were friends before and we kinda sided with Freddy last time."  
  
"Mystique said 'go find Freddy and calm him down', she said 'I'll handle Rogue'"Todd reminded Lance. "So, of course we sided with - OW!"  
  
"Hey Kitty!" Lance greeted with a smile, while Todd rubbed the sore spot on his shoulder where Lance had hit him.  
  
"Hey guys," Kitty responded as she distributed the ice cream. "Is something wrong, Toad?" She asked noticing the intense glare he had aimed at Lance.  
  
Todd relented and settled for a slight frown. "Nothin', yo?" He told her briskly before snatching his ice cream cone from Kitty with his tongue and downing it in one gulp. "Ach! Brain Freeze!" Todd gasped grabbing his head.  
  
"That is, like, so totally icksome!" Kitty complained with a cringe.  
  
Lance laughed. "Y'know if he's too disgustin' for you, Kitty, you could always go join the X-Geeks with that blue furry guy." He teased.  
  
"Eww, like, don't remind me! I, like, can't believe he's got a tail!" Kitty whined.  
  
Almost as if on cue Kurt strolled cautiously up to their table. "Hey Kitty, I vas vondering if you might vant to come over to our table for avile?" He asked courteously pointing out a table Scott and Jean were sitting at, Scott even waved.  
  
Kitty's reaction was far from anything the X-Men could have hoped for, she scooted her chair as away from Kurt as fast as possible and only stopped after her chair collided with Lance's. "Eww, eww, eww! Like, eww, no, like, please, go away!" She pleaded almost frantically.  
  
Kurt seemed taken aback by her response. Lance just glared at him with his usual scowl. "Can't you see she doesn't want anything to do with you, X-Geeks? So, lay off!" Lance hollered at Kurt, who suddenly appeared to have seen the error of his ways and quickly retreated back to his own table. "It's okay Kitty they wont bother you anymore, now." Lance promised in a comforting way.  
  
"Can we go home?" Kitty asked when she noticed the X-Men weren't leaving and in fact were now starring at her while Kurt explained what had happened to Scott and Jean.  
  
"That's why we have a jeep." Lance told her happily as he got up to lead them out of the food court.  
  
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As Lance and Todd expected, Mystique was not to be found at the Boarding House when they returned.  
  
"That's odd, usually Mystique's home by now." Kitty said as she flopped on the couch. "Where do you think she went?"  
  
"Maybe she's recruiting someone." Todd suggested simply as he perched on the arm, across from Kitty, on the couch.  
  
"Who cares why she's gone? No Mystique and Magneto means, no evening training." Lance pointed out with a smirk as he sat down in his favorite chair.  
  
"It's not all that bad, they're just trying to prepare us in case the humans react badly when they find out about mutants." Kitty asserted looking thoughtful, "Maybe we could do some training without them."  
  
Lance shook his head in disbelief. "Kitty, your supposed to be happy that we're getting a day off." He explained.  
  
"Maybe you guys are, but that's only cause you both have, like, way more experience than me." Kitty scoffed.  
  
"Ya, and because of all the wonderful experiences we've had Mystique and Magneto expect more from us. Our training's probably ten times harder than yours." Lance growled disdainfully.  
  
"Alright, how 'bout me an' Kitty train, while Lance sits here and laughs at us." Todd proposed before his teammate's could start a real argument.  
  
"Okay! Like, what's the mission?" Kitty asked eagerly. Lance just sighed and seemed to deflate into his chair.  
  
Todd leaned in close and whispered secretively, "Your mission should you choose to accept it is to infiltrate Boss Lady Headquarters. Warning: It will be heavily guarded."  
  
Kitty giggled. "Heavily guarded, by what?" She asked.  
  
"By me, yo?" Todd quipped, before he flipped of the couch and onto the ceiling, where he stuck. Then he quickly crept across into the entrance hall.  
  
Kitty followed Todd out of the room, if she could get past him on the staircase it'd be easy to phase through the door. She could see Todd perched precariously on the baluster that marked the top of the staircase banister. He had an unfortunate smile on his face that gave Kitty the feeling she was being toyed with.   
  
Todd continued to wait patiently at the top of the stairs, while Kitty assessed the situation, for all the time she took, she still chose the most obvious tactic of simply charging up the stairs at him. Perhaps if she'd been Pietro, her plan would have worked, but taking a Toad by surprise wasn't as easy a task as one may think.  
  
Just as Kitty reached the fifth step from the top Todd lunged at her. She stopped, instinctively covered her face with her arms, and phased. Kitty mentally congratulated herself as she continued to run for the door. She started to concentrate on the door ahead of her that she was about to phase through, when suddenly her feet were pulled out from under her and she found her self dangling upside down over Lance, who was indeed laughing, but he had moved to the entrance hall for a better view.  
  
After a moment Kitty realized she was being suspended by Todd's tongue. "Like, put me down!" She cried angrily at him. Kitty immediately regretted the request as Todd released his hold letting her fall screaming down to where Lance caught her.  
  
"Had enough training yet?" Lance laughed.  
  
Kitty struggled out of Lance's grip and tried to shove him, resulting in her phasing through him and stumbling. Lance offered her a hand up, but Kitty smacked his hand aside and pulled herself up. "You guys are, like, such jerks!" She yelled angrily as she headed to her room.  
  
"Sorry, yo?" Todd muttered, as Kitty passed him by. He did look genuine, but Kitty was still seemed a bit miffed.  
  
"Aw, c'mon Kitty we were just joking. I didn't mean to make you mad. I'm sorry!" Lance called after her receiving only the sound of a slamming door as a response. "Nice going, Toad." He growled in an admonishing tone.  
  
"I said I was sorry, yo? Last time I volunteer to train with Ms. Sensitive." Todd grumbled as he hopped back down the stairs.   
  
"It's not her fault, she only got her power a couple weeks ago. I was terrified when I first got my powers." Lance paused a moment reflectively, then shuddered involuntarily.  
  
Everything was dark. Lance couldn't remember what had happened he just remembered his parents arguing over the divorce again. Lance had been in his room, but it was never this dark. He'd gone there because his head hurt, it had been bothering him a lot lately.  
  
He could hear sounds somewhere outside of the darkness. It was the sirens that had woken him up. He could hear men talking, and they sounded worried about something. A dog began barking, suddenly a shaft of light broke through from above. The two firemen pulled a young Lance Alvers from the ruble that used to be his home. Their search dog danced around him jovially wagging its tail.  
  
"Listen, son, are you all right? Were there any others in the building with you?" One of the firemen asked as he carried Lance to an awaiting ambulance. Lance stared blankly at the ruins that had once been his home.   
  
"I think he's in shock." The other fireman informed the ambulance drivers.   
  
Lance finally tore his eyes away from his former home, and looked, wide-eyed up at the fireman that was still holding him. "Mom? Dad?" He asked with a note of fear prevailing in his voice.   
  
"The other two we found." The fireman stated despairingly, as he looked over his shoulder at something. Tears rushed into Lance's eyes as he spotted two black body bags.   
  
He had only been fourteen and not even he knew it at the time, but eventually he'd come to understand what had caused the mysterious building collapse that had killed his parents.  
  
Lance's stomach churned slightly as he wondered why Forge's stupid machine couldn't have sent him further back in time.   
  
"You never called an end to the session, Toad, I won fair and square." Kitty laughed triumphantly.   
  
"Alright, you win, but you tricked me. I thought we were supposed to be workin' on our mutant abilities?" Todd asked skeptically, though he was relieved that Kitty wasn't really mad at him and Lance.  
  
"Hey, I had to, like, phase through three rooms to get to Mystique's. I'd say that counts as training mutant abilities." Kitty giggled. "Oh, Lance you should have seen your face when I called you a jerk is was so sad, I thought you were gonna cry for a second!"   
  
"You mean you're not mad at me?" Lance asked a bit confused.  
  
"No, silly, weren't you listening to my victory speech?" Kitty asked as walked down the stairs to give him a hug.  
  
"Y'know I tried to tune her out too, but it didn't work." Todd quipped. Kitty stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
"No, I was just thinkin' about something." Lance said as he released Kitty from their hug.  
  
Kitty looked up at Lance with a slightly worried expression. He had a distant look in his eyes, it always bothered her when he looked like that, it made him look so old. She was about to ask if something was wrong when the front door opened abruptly.  
  
Mystique walked in wearing her Ms. Darkholme disguise. "Good you're all here to meet your new teammate." She stated as she stepped aside to grant a very nervous looking Rogue entry. "I want to introduce you all to Rogue. Rogue, these are your teammates: Lance, Kitty, and Toad." Mystique said motioning to each one in turn.  
  
"This is, like, so totally awesome! I won't be the only girl anymore!" Kitty exclaimed excitedly.  
  
"And we won't have to go to anymore shoe stores." Todd commented to Lance who nodded with a smile.  
  
"Good glad you're all happy, now will someone mind telling me why that tank is in my driveway?" Mystique asked suspiciously.   
  
"Lance won it at the mall! Isn't that great!" Kitty proclaimed happily, before anyone else had a chance to explain.   
  
"Very well, but I'm not paying for its gas or maintenance. Now, if you don't mind I have to call the School District Office and a couple of other people." Mystique didn't have to say who the "other people" were, except for Rogue everyone knew she had to inform Magneto about her success in recruiting Rogue. "Kitty, show her to an open room. Boys help carry her luggage." She didn't even wait for a 'yes ma'am' before she shut herself into her room.  
  
"Akay, so, like, where are you from?" Kitty asked as she led Rogue and the 'bag boys' upstairs to Rogue's new room.  
  
"Mississippi." Rogue muttered quietly.  
  
"That's cool. Lance and I are from Illinois. My power's phasing, it means I can, like walk through walls. Lance can cause earthquakes and Toad can jump high and stuff." Kitty told her with a bright smile.  
  
"Are you an' Lance related or somethin'?" Rogue asked glancing between the two.  
  
Kitty laughed lightly. "No, just a lucky coincidence I guess. Lance has had his power's for a longer time, but I had just gotten my powers when Mystique came to get him. Like, here's your new room. Mine's right next door and Toad's is at the end of the hall." Kitty said opening the door for Lance and Todd to carry in Rogue's bags.  
  
"How come girls have so much junk, yo?" Todd mumbled as he heaved a large suitcase onto the bed.   
  
"I dunno," Lance replied with a shrug, "and ya ever notice how they need huge purses, while guys only need a wallet?"   
  
"See this is the kind of riveting discussion guys have." Kitty told Rogue sarcastically as Lance and Todd left her room, still trying to figure out how it was that women needed so much more stuff then men. "Remember I'm just next door if you need to talk about anything. I know how scary getting new powers can be." Kitty waited for a second hoping to get a response from the quiet girl, but she decided that, she better leave after a couple seconds of awkward silence.  
  
Kitty walked out of the room pulling Rogue's door shut behind her. "Thanks, Kitty, but ah don' suppose you've evah even heard of the X-Men." Rogue said sadly in a voice just above a whisper.  
  
Kitty pulled the door back open with a concerned look on her face. "Some of them attend Bayville High. They're, like, so annoying. What'd they do to you?" Kitty asked as she sat down next to Rogue.  
  
Rogue's eyes widened. "They attend mah new school, but they were chasing me. Ah was so frightened an' it all so confusin'. Ya see Ma'stique says mah power's energy absorption, that means if ah were tah touch ya now ah'd take your powers and some of your memories for a while. " Rogue told Kitty sadly.  
  
"Woah, that, like, really put things in perspective." Kitty sighed, then she remembered the real reason they were having this conversation. "The X-Men were chasing you, those creeps! They've been bothering me at school, but they tend to avoid Lance and Toad. Just earlier today even they were trying to get me to join their team, but Lance scarred them off and when I first got my powers they showed up at my house."  
  
"Did they chase ya?" Rogue asked showing genuine interest in Kitty's story.   
  
"I didn't give them the chance. I knew something was wrong when they told my parents they wanted to take me away, but they didn't want Lance, I phased through the wall and ran away and found Lance. I haven't seen my parents since. I call and talk to them of course, they're a bit disappointed, but they try to be understanding."  
  
"Do you think they'll try to take me now though? I mean they wouldn't try to kidnap me would they?" Rogue asked with as her brow furrowed with worry.   
  
"No," Kitty laughed, "they know we'd come get you even if Lance had to knock that Institute of theirs down, you know it's not called the 'Brotherhood' Boarding House for no reason. Besides Mystique and Magneto are going to, like, teach us how to use our powers, then no one will be able to bother us."  
  
Rogue smiled, she looked a lot more reassured. They heard a couple swift sharp knocks on the door. "Lights out, Kitty get back to your room it's past eleven and you both have school in the morning." Mystique called to them through the door.  
  
Kitty got up to leave when she heard Mystique yell a Toad to go to sleep down the hall. "See you in the morning Rogue."  
  
"You too, Kitty." Rogue said as Kitty left. Rogue lay back on her bed, she thought she might just be able to get through this whole being a mutant thing, now that she'd finally found some people she could trust.  
  
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Next Chap: More on Rogue, so yell at me now if I did something wrong with her accent. Freddy, he may be underappreciated by the rest, but I still love him. More X-Men, insert boos and hisses here. Of course more Lance and Todd. Kitty will not be in the next chap . . . she deflated . . . No, I'm joking, I know some people hate it, but I like, like, the likes. They amuse me!   
  
I'm sorry this took so long, while I was writing it my friends may have noticed me mumbling about 'the chapter that never ends' It's nine pages on my computer, which is long for me. Other reasons why this took so long include a six-day trip away from my computer. Having to locate and watch my tape with Rogue Recruit on it, losing it and having to find it again just to be sure, cause I'm a stickler for facts. Looking for a Southern Dictionary and not finding any good ones. It would have taken longer, but my cohort Half-N-Half was all: YOU MUST FINISH YOUR NEXT CHAPTER I NEED TO READ IT! *Jump up and down excitedly*   
  
As for Lance, he's hogging the flashbacks and forwards and yeah that's one of the reasons I hate time travel. That's actually based on what happened to comicverse Avalanche . . . I read X-Men comic encyclopedias cause I'm a fact freak like that. I forget where I found it, but I remember reading that his parents died in a mysterious building collapse. It answers the why was Lance in a foster home question that plagued my mind until I came up with that theory.   
  
I read all the Comments, Questions, and Death Threats my Reviewers send me and I thoroughly enjoy them . . . well maybe not the death threats so much . . . and now its ten pages long. 


	7. Brotherhood Signs

Second Time Round  
  
I don't know why I keep sayin' that I, ProFool, am writing this . . . maybe it's for the people who suffer from short term memory loss or long term depending on how long it takes me to update.  
  
Disclaimer: Lots of people say seven is a lucky number, so maybe I don't need a disclaimer. Now, watch as seven lawyers swoop in on me.   
  
Note: I owe my knowledge of how the Brotherhood trains to Burger King, weird huh? They used to have X-Men: Evolution toys that came with comics. They were funny Pietro got beat down in two of 'em, poor boy, but his fight with Toad really showed off how much potential Todd really has.   
  
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Lance slowly walked down the darkened corridor, the clanking sound his uniform's boots made whenever they came into contact with the metal floor irritated him. The prize he sought was at the far end of the passage and he was already halfway there. In the briefing Magneto had told him it would be well guarded, but there was nothing; no sound, no movement, he couldn't even pick up on any tell tale vibrations with his powers. Only his stupid boots clanking across the stupid metal floor, and it was just plane annoying.  
  
Even with the lights as dim as they were, he could see the chest that Magneto had sent him in to retrieve just up ahead. Lance couldn't stand it any longer he set off in an all out run to the end of the corridor, he almost hoped some obnoxiously loud alarm would go off as he ripped the chest from its pedestal and began his mad dash back to the passage's exit.   
  
Lance was at the point where he could have chucked the chest through the archway marking the corridor's exit. His boots ceased beating loudly against the metal tiling. Lance almost toppled over as his boots stuck firmly to the ground. He tried to yank his boots loose with one arm while his other arm held the chest. Vibrations resonated through the ground in front of him as someone dropped down from the ceiling.   
  
"Can't feel vibrations when your opponent's hangin' from the ceilin', huh Avalanche?" Toad chuckled before he snatched the chest from Lance's loose grip with his tongue.  
  
"Toad! I should have figured, this place has 'mugged in a dark alleyway' written all over it."  
  
Lance shouted angrily as he prepared to drop the ceiling on Todd, as to save him the return trip up to it.   
  
"Out!" Rogue called as she grabbed Lance's face from behind.   
  
Lance tried to turn around and look at her as he pulled her gloved hand away from his mouth. "How'd you get behind me I didn't feel any vibes . . . Wait why aren't you sticking to the ground!?" Lance asked very confused as he realized high collars made it very difficult to see behind yourself without turning.  
  
"The same way I'm gonna get you unstuck!" Kitty giggled as she phased him out of the slime Todd covered the floor with.  
  
"You planned this just to annoy me." Lance muttered as he blew a few stray hairs out of his face.  
  
"Pretty much." Todd admitted as the lights came back on and Magneto entered the room.  
  
"So, like, how did we do?" Kitty asked Magneto as she walked up to him in hope of catching a glimpse at the notes he'd taken during their training session.   
  
"Your doing exceptionally well Shadowcat, I thought you'd only be able to phase one other person besides yourself, if any, by this time." Magneto told Kitty, while he covered his notes. Kitty smiled up at him sheepishly realizing he was on to her. Then he turned his attention to Todd and Lance. "Toad I want you and Avalanche to switch places next time and try not to destroy my base, Avalanche."   
  
"It's not like you can't just put it back together again. Everything in here is metal." Lance pointed out.  
  
"Yes, I could and I have numerous times since you've joined the team. It's getting a bit old." Magneto informed him.  
  
"Wha' about me?" Rogue asked hopefully. "When do ah get to use mah powers in training sessions?"  
  
"I would have let you this time, but I was worried about the amount of destruction you could have caused with Avalanche's powers." Magneto explained as Rogue frowned slightly. "I intend to let you use them in your next training session against Toad."  
  
Rogue's demeanor noticeably brightened. "Really, ya mean it?" She asked, Magneto nodded. "Gee, thanks Magneto!"  
  
"Ya thanks, yo?" Todd added sarcastically, "So, glad I get to train with Rogue minus the gloves." He muttered.   
  
Todd could hear Lance snickering behind him. "Serves you right." He laughed.  
  
"All right, that's going to have to be the last training session today." Magneto announced, "It's a good thing you won that jeep Avalanche or you'd be late to school with all the time it takes you to change out of your uniforms."   
  
"Cause you know I'd just hate to miss that test first period." Lance quipped sarcastically as he followed the others out of the training room.  
  
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX  
  
"Hey, watch out!" Lance yelped as Duncan Mathews dashed around a corner almost knocking him over. "Stupid Meathead." Lance muttered as he watched the jock run into a couple freshmen further down the hall.  
  
"Wonder wha's got him so spooked." Rogue stated thoughtfully.  
  
"Who cares, yo? They rock!" Todd said happily.  
  
"Like, maybe Mystique got us a new teammate." Kitty said with a shrug.   
  
Lance and Todd just stared dumbstruck at her for a second. "I'm gonna go find out." Lance proclaimed before charging down the hall to Ms. Darkholme's office.  
  
"Lance! Wait your gonna be late for first period!" Kitty called after him.  
  
"Don't worry, Boss Lady'll clear us." Todd told her before hopping away. "Wait up, yo? I wanna ditch first too!"  
  
"Ah swear those two wouldn' pass a single class at this school if they didn' live with the Principal." Rogue commented as she and Kitty headed of to their own classes.  
  
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX  
  
Lance stopped outside of Ms. Darkholme's office after taking notice of the nearly demolished lockers. "Fred was here alright . . . do you remember what his first period was?" He asked Todd as he approached.  
  
"I can't believe we forgot about Freddy arriving today, yo? He's already met Jean, how we gonna stop him from gettin' in a fight with the X-Geeks?" Todd asked as he absent mindedly kicked at one of the locker doors that had been knocked open by Freddy.  
  
"I dunno" Lance muttered angrily, "I-" Lance was cutoff by a loud resonating crash as the badly damaged set of lockers decided to fall over. It would have crushed Todd if he wasn't granted heightened reflexes and the ability to leap several feet backwards.  
  
Ms. Darkholme burst out of her office to investigate, she immediately happened upon Lance, Todd and the pile of scrap metal that used to be a set of lockers. "You two in my office now!" Ms. Darkholme ordered of the two young mutants. She looked on with satisfaction as they strolled into her office without an argument, she smiled smugly knowing how much this simple feet impressed the office staff that knew of the boys' troublesome reputation.  
  
Lance and Todd sat down quietly in Ms. Darkholme's office. Then Ms. Darkholme stepped in and shut the door behind her. "How many times do I have to tell you two, 'No powers outside of training!', before it finally sinks into your thick skulls?" Mystique shouted aggressively as dropped her Ms. Darkholme guise.   
  
"It wasn't us." Todd whined with an almost instinctive flinch.  
  
Mystique rounded on him almost as though she sensed his fear. To her Toad was only a number, and a pathetic one at that, as easily manipulated as her own molecules. "Care to explain further how the set of lockers in front of my office was demolished and you two just happened to be standing there far from your first period class?" She demanded loudly of him. Todd shot Lance a pleading glance. "Well!"  
  
Todd didn't know what to do. How could he tell her they had been looking for a new recruit that they weren't supposed to know about without raising many more unwanted questions. To make the matter worse he couldn't think strait with her baring down on him the way she was and he knew she was never going to let Lance talk! Unfortunately his confused silence seemed to clench Mystique's suspicions.   
  
"If you two of you want to be destructive and ditch classes then I'll take you out of class and give you something productive to do." Mystique growled in an almost seductive voice.  
  
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX  
  
"Join Drama Club Yo!" Todd read aloud as finished dotting the exclamation with his paintbrush.  
  
"Judgment Day Draws Near!" Lance read with a smirk holding up his completed sign.  
  
"Mystique ain't gonna like that, yo?" Todd pointed out as he started cleaning off his paintbrush.  
  
"Fine, 'Have A Nice Day!' So, what's left on our lil to-do list?" Lance asked as he taped his new sing to the bottom of his old sign, so it read: 'Judgement Day Draws Near! Have A Nice Day!'  
  
"We get to finish painting the gym and moving out the excess bricks." Todd read off the list Ms. Darkholme had provided for them. "And it says 'NO POWERS!' in big bold red letters at the bottom." Todd muttered as he stuffed the paper back into his pocket.  
  
"Is what she's makin' us do even legal?" Lance asked skeptically as they walked out to the scaffolding that was currently surrounding the gym.  
  
"Anything's legal with a parent or legal guardian's signature nowadays, yo?" Todd said as he looked around to see if anyone was watching, "And you know who are legal guardian is."  
  
"I should try harder to get on Mystique's good side." Lance thought out loud as he watched Todd jump up onto the scaffolding. The whole structure shook on impact. "Be careful Toad, if you think she was mad about a few messed up lockers just wait 'til ya knock this thing over with all your jumpin' around up there!" Lance called up to him before he started to climb up the side.  
  
It wasn't long before the lunch bell rang and Ms. Darkholme came out to check on the progress they'd made. "Having fun boys?" She asked with a slightly amused look on her face.  
  
"Oh, ya loads!" Lance called down sarcastically. "Can we eat now?" He asked.  
  
Ms. Darkholme frowned up at them. "Not until you've completed the task at hand." She stated cooly.  
  
"But that'll take all day, yo?" Todd complained in an exasperated tone.   
  
"It will teach you to be more efficient and less destructive if nothing else." Ms. Darkholme informed them as she walked back into the school.  
  
Lance glared angrily after her retreating form, until a strong southern accent demanded his attention. "Looks like someone shouda gone tah class."  
  
"Take your shirt off!" Kitty called up to Lance mockingly.   
  
"Maybe later." Lance told Kitty with a wolfish grin.  
  
"He'd take it off now, but he's tryin' to get on the Boss Lady's good side. I, however, am not." Todd called down with an evil grin as he pulled his shirts off.  
  
"Gah!" Kitty cried, "That is, like, so totally icksome!"   
  
"We'll see ya boys after school, ya'll can pick us up at the park." Rogue informed them as she and Kitty headed off to the cafeteria.   
  
Lance waved after them as they left. "You get back to work and for heaven's sake put your clothes back on Toad!" A quick glance down revealed Ms. Darkholme to be the one yelling at them.  
  
Lance tried not to give in to the urge he had to accidentally drop a bucket of paint on Ms. Darkholme's, while Todd pulled his shirts back on. "That's better." She commented smugly as Lance and Todd started painting again.   
  
Lance watched her leave out of the corner of his eye. "If I chucked it, I could still douse her with paint." He said lifting up his paint can.  
  
"Ain't fair, yo? You'd get to douse her with paint, but we'd both have to pay for it." Todd told Lance snatching the paint can away.  
  
"Why are you so afraid of her?" Lance asked in an exasperated tone as he went back to painting the gym.  
  
"Cause she's scary." Todd said simply.  
  
"You're tellin' me that you can stand your ground when faced with a fleet of sentinels, but you can't even look her in the eye most of the time. She's not that scary." Lance snorted.  
  
"Easy for you to say she don't beat on you, she's afraid of you." Todd complained without looking over at Lance.  
  
"What makes you think she's afraid of me?" Lance asked with a look of confusion.  
  
Todd laughed slightly. "She's always been afraid of you ever since Magneto sent her your background info." He said careful to focus on his current task.  
  
"How'd you find that out?" Lance asked a bit shocked by the new information.  
  
"She likes yellin' at me, you'd be surprised some of the junk she's told me in her rants over the years, guess she just figures I won't tell anyone." Todd stated with an almost bored expression.  
  
"She was right, I mean you never told me before." Lance pointed out.  
  
"Y'never asked, yo?" Todd explained with a shrug. "So, how we gonna stop Rogue from blastin' Freddy into the dump again?" Todd asked without warning.   
  
Lance just stopped and stared blankly at the wall for a second unable to comprehend the change in subject. Then he realized how difficult it was going to be to stop history from repeating itself with Ms. Darkholme on guard to make sure they couldn't wander off and perform any sort of intervention. "We'll leave the second Darkholme heads to her car."  
  
Time seemed to pass even slower than it usually did at school while Todd and Lance continued painting. When the last bell finally rang they still had to paint about ten feet worth of building.  
  
Todd hopped onto the roof and watched Ms. Darkholme drive off in her car. "Y'know the least she could've done was say bye." Todd mumbled as he hopped back onto the scaffolding just in time to get splattered by paint as Lance splashed the last bit of wall with all the paint that was left in his bucket.  
  
"She didn't want us to know she left. If we knew, we might get ideas about leaving ourselves." Lance explained with a smirk as he used his paint roller to cover over a couple remaining dry spots. "There all - Woah!" Lance shouted as the scaffolding shuttered violently. "Toad! Knock it off with the jumping around you idiot!" Lance shouted as he clung to the side of the structure. The shaking subsided for a moment Lance was about to continue yelling at a very shocked and confused looking Toad when something large struck the lower section of the scaffolding causing it to collapse.  
  
Lance looked down at the quickly approaching ground and spotted Freddy. The fact Freddy was probably using his body as a human shield to protect Jean at the moment didn't register in Lance's mind all he was thinking about was how much pain he was about to be in. It wasn't a happy thought and the best thing he could think of doing at the moment was clinching his eyes shut.   
  
Everything went dark first he felt something hit him in the side hard, then he heard the scaffolding crash down loudly. Lance realized something was wrong, he was still in the air instead of being smashed into the ground. He opened his eyes just in time to watch Todd unceremoniously drop him onto the ground a good thirty feet from the pile of scrap metal and wood that used to be the scaffolding. After a moment Freddy burst out of the debris cradling Jean's limp form.  
  
Despite the circumstances Todd couldn't help smiling at the sight of a friend he had once been convinced he'd never see again. "Hey Freddy!" Todd called out as he leapt back over to him.  
  
Freddy looked up when he heard his name. A couple of guys he'd never seen before in his life had just watched him almost kill Jean. Fear swept over Freddy as he rose to his feet still holding Jean. One of the guys was already heading toward him, they were going to try to arrest him or something he just knew it. It wasn't his fault, but they wouldn't understand, no one ever stopped to hear his side of the story, no one cared. Freddy panicked as the guy stopped right in front of him.   
  
"Get back!" Freddy shouted as he knocked Todd out of his way and took off with Jean.  
  
Lance walked up to Todd as the younger mutant hopped back onto his feet. "That wasn't one of your better ideas." Lance commented as he tried to spot where Fred had run off to. "Any idea where he took Jean? No one ever told me. They just made me help look for him afterwards." Lance explained.  
  
"No," Todd grumbled, as he dusted himself off, "But, Rogue will."   
  
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX  
  
Rogue and Kitty strolled leisurely through the park. "Y'know ah was really kinda hopin' the guys would be able tah come along." Rogue confessed when she spotted Scott sitting at one of the picnic tables. He waved almost over zealously as they approached.   
  
"Don't sweat it, I'll be here and besides they aren't allowed to use their powers in public." Kitty reminded Rogue as they reached Scott's table.  
  
"Hey, Rogue. Kitty, if it's all the same to you, could we have some privacy. I don't really want an audience yet." Scott explained hoping Kitty would fulfil his request.  
  
Kitty looked Scott over and decided he wasn't much of a threat at the moment. "Oh, alright, but I'll, like, be close okay, Rogue?"  
  
"Ah'll be alrigh', ah guess." Rogue told Kitty and sent her off with a wave, good bye.  
  
"So, I guess I have to start, huh." Scott said before clearing his throat, "Fair Katharine, will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms such as will enter at a lady's ear and plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?" Scott read out loud stumbling only slightly over the lines.  
  
"Your majesty shall mock at me; ah cannot speak your England." Rogue sighed as she quickly read through her lines.  
  
"O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue." Scott paused for a moment, "Do you like me, Kate?" He asked never raising his eyes from the script.  
  
"Pardonnez-moi, ah cannot tell vat is 'like me.' " Rogue said with her best French Accent, then looked up from her script to watch Scott give his delivery.  
  
"An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel." Scott read in soft attractive tone.  
  
Rogue couldn't help letting out a slight giggle, "The girls are right. You are a charmer."   
  
Scott took slight offense at the comment. "Look, I'm just reading the lines, okay?" He told Rogue bluntly.  
  
"Ya, ah know." Rogue sighed, "It's jus', sometimes . . . ah wish . . . "  
  
"Yeah? Wish what?" Scott asked as a look of genuine interest crossed his face.  
  
"Wish . . . " Rogue continued, she glanced off into the distance as she gathered her thoughts, "I could get close to somebody. But you know what happens when I do." She confessed to Scott.   
  
Scott looked like he was about to say something when Kurt teleported in landing right on top of the picnic table. Causing Kitty to scream and fall out of the tree next to them. She ended up on top of Scott on the ground.  
  
"Whoa! Tender moment here? Sorry to interrupt." Kurt laughed, "But seriously Scott, you need to start inviting me to zese rehearsals!"  
  
"Like, why do these things always happen to me?" Kitty pouted as she quickly got off of Scott.  
  
"Ah swear, he's like an annoyin' lil brother." Rogue complained, while she glared at Kitty for spying. Kurt stuck his tongue out in response, while Kitty just blushed a bit.  
  
"What's the problem?" Scott asked as he picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off.   
  
"Jean's been nabbed!" Kurt exclaimed as he remembered why he'd been sent to the park in the first place.   
  
"What!?" Scott shouted grabbing Kurt by his uniform.   
  
"Easy on the exquisite costume, mein freund! Wolverine's on the scent, but I'm supposed to collect you." Kurt explained as he freed himself from Scott's grip.  
  
Scott hit the table angrily. "Blob! If he's hurt her, I'll–" He paused from his would be rant to glare at Kitty and Rogue who were now trying to avoid making eye contact with the enraged X-Man "You know anything about this?" He asked in a harsh accusing tone.  
  
Rogue stared up at Scott resentfully. "No! And even if ah did, ah wouldn't tell you!" She yelled at him aggressively.   
  
"Then I hope you can live with your conscience." Scott told her with disdain, "Teleporter to maximum, Mr. Wagner." Scott said turning back to Kurt.  
  
"Aye, captain!" Kurt quipped in his best Scottish accent.   
  
"Engage." Scott muttered before they both disappeared.  
  
"Like, what was all that about?" Kitty asked in confusion, "Who's Blob anyway? Hey, maybe he's that guy that went ballistic in the cafeteria today. What do you think, Rogue?"  
  
"Ah think we should go help 'em." Rogue said as she rose from her seat at the picnic table and started walking.  
  
"What?" Kitty exclaimed as she caught up with Rogue. "Like, why help them?"  
  
"Well, for one it's the righ' thang tah do. Plus what if somethin' happened tah one of us and they said no when we asked them for help? 'sides ah'm startin' tah think ya'll was righ' abou' us gettin' a new team member." Rogue stated as she continued walking.  
  
"Let me just point out that they never asked us for help. They, like, accused us of being involved, but your right, I guess, we should help them and if he is on our team . . . then I, like, seriously hope he's just having a really bad day." Kitty told Rogue, then she thought for a second and asked, "Where are we going anyway?"  
  
"Name a place no one goes." Rogue said as she hailed a taxi.  
  
Kitty looked thoughtful for a moment. "What about that old abandoned ironworks factory at the South end of Bayville? You know, the place Lance said would make a good training area." Kitty asked then noticed the odd look the cabby was giving her.   
  
"Funny another couple o' kids wanted a ride out that way earlier, there some party I dunno 'bout?" The cabby asked with a smirk as he started driving.  
  
Kitty and Rogue just stared at him for a moment in disbelief, then Rogue simply said, "Ah'll pay ya double your regular if ya get us there in half the time."   
  
"Yes, Ma'am!" The cabby chuckled as he happily accelerated to well over the marked speed limit.  
  
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX  
  
"This is gonna be the best night you've ever had. Dinner, dancing-" Fred said placing a napkin across Jean's lap, he felt maybe if he just pretended everything was normal it would be all right.   
  
But then Jean had to go and cut him off, "Fred, this is all wrong. Now, you can't force someone to like you." She tried to reason with him before and it hadn't really worked, but there wasn't much else she could do with two iron bars strapping her to a chair. She had already contacted the Professor. Now, all she could do was wait and hope they'd get here soon. For now reason was all she could do.  
  
  
  
"Why not? I'm stronger than everyone." Fred boasted and flexed his muscles in an attempt to prove he wasn't just a tub of lard.  
  
  
  
"Being nice usually works better." Jean told him with a hopeful smile.   
  
Fred smiled back, maybe she was finally stating to smile again. "Oh, yeah. I just remembered. I've got a surprise for you." Fred announced before he left the room to fetch his record player. He'd already lit several candles to set up the mood now all they really needed was some good theme music.   
  
Freddy was shuffling back to the room he'd left Jean in when suddenly Wolverine burst in through the door. Wolverine didn't even pause to look at Freddy before attacking with his claws fully extended. Luckily for Freddy, he was one of the few 'substances' on earth that Wolverine's adamantium claws couldn't cut threw.  
  
Freddy flung Wolverine off of him with all his might, but the older mutant still managed to land on his feet with cat like reflexes. Wolverine charged forward for another attack, but this time Freddy wouldn't be caught off guard as he lifted a large piece of machinery and chucked it at Wolverine. It stirred up a lot of dust when it hit the ground and at first Freddy wasn't sure if he'd hit Wolverine at all.  
  
Freddy smiled smugly thinking he'd won after Wolverine had not charged him for a third time. Just as he was about to go back to his 'date' and continue pretending everything was perfectly normal, Wolverine struck again. He had managed to swing himself up into the rafters while the dust was still settling.  
  
Wolverine leapt down at Freddy his claws extended, perhaps the kid's face would be so invulnerable. Freddy grabbed Wolverine by the arms before his claws could make contact and held them as far away from his face as he could. For a moment both mutants were at a stale mate. Freddy had learned better than to try and throw him away again and Wolverine was two short to inflict any sort of damage while Freddy was holding him.  
  
They stayed in relatively the same position for a couple beats while Freddy wondered what to do next and Wolverine struggled to break free with no success. Then finally an idea popped into Freddy's head and he body slammed Wolverine.   
  
"Can't . . . Breath . . . " Wolverine choked, just as Freddy had hoped.  
  
Freddy smiled as he realized he was going to win for once. "Jean's my friend! You can't take her!" He threatened in a 'look who's laughing now' tone. Wolverine's claws retracted as he lost consciousness, he never heard Freddy's last taunt.  
  
Scott, however, had heard and answered with a warning blast from his visor. "We're just giving her away out. Through you, if necessary." He told Freddy as he walked in through the opening Wolverine had made when he first arrived.   
  
Scott raised his visor again, this time making sure his shot hit Freddy dead on. Freddy smiled as the optic blast had no effect on him. A new plan formulated in his head, he picked up the still unconscious Wolverine and hurtled him across the room. Wolverine's adamantium infused form struck Scott hard knocking him back into Wolverine's motorcycle. Scott struck his head and was out like some of the candles in the other room.   
  
Having overcome both of his foes Freddy returned to where Jean had been watching horror struck the entire time. Ororo had left earlier on in the week to spend some time with her sister's family. Her Professor was on Cerebro so he could track Freddy incase he tried to make a run for it. Jean had contacted Kurt, but he was currently caught in traffic halfway across town and too far away to teleport in. Jean knew she had to fend off Freddy alone for now and try to reawaken Scott and Logan with her psychic powers as soon as possible.   
  
Freddy walked into the room and was immediately smacked in the face with an old filing cabinet. Freddy managed to force the hunk of metal away from his face. "No one respects me and you're the worst! You pretended to be my friend!" Freddy hollered emotionally as he chucked the filing cabinet back at Jean.   
  
Jean caught the filing cabinet in midair with her telekinesis and set it down next to her. Hope rose in Jean for a second as she watched Freddy walk out of the room again, but it quickly failed as she saw him heading back toward her with an even bigger piece of machinery than the one he'd thrown at Logan.  
  
Freddy stalked forward holding the large machine over his head. He got ready to slam it through the door at Jean. Then suddenly Freddy got zapped by an optic blast right at the base of his neck. It didn't really hurt so much, but the shock of being hit from behind was enough to make him drop the machine before he could throw it at Jean.   
  
"Leave her alone, ya yahoo!" Rogue yelled. There was an eerie red glow around her eyes. She had stolen Scott's powers.   
  
"What a' ya gonna do to me? Make me wear bad makeup?" Freddy asked as shoved the machine out of his way.  
  
While Freddy was distracted by his new opponent, Kitty phased into the room with Jean, and phased Jean out of her iron bonds. Kitty motioned silently for Jean to follow and phased them both out of the factory through a wall.  
  
"Didn't Mystique tell ya what mah power is?" Rogue asked as she dodged a couple of Freddy's punches.  
  
"No, cause I don't care!" Freddy explained angrily as he tried to hit Rogue.  
  
Rogue ducked his last punch and grabbed his bare arm with her bare hand. "Mah power is your power, and ah can take more than one!" Rogue declared as she drained away some of Freddy's super strength. She used it to throw Freddy aside and then she blasted him with Scott's power.   
  
Freddy got back up having sustained no real injuries. "Ha! I got to much power even for you! You can't hurt me! I'm the Blob!" He panted victoriously.  
  
"Nah. You're just garbage that wanted a date! Now, tell ya what . . . " Rogue paused, she had been about to give him a chance to surrender, when she saw Freddy charging toward her, "Ah'm taking you out!" Rogue shouted at him as she combined Freddy and Scott's powers to make a concussive force strong enough to blast Freddy strait through the ceiling and a good distance into the air.  
  
Kurt pulled up in the X-Van to where Jean was just now waking up Cyclops and Wolverine. "Ach! I alvays miss dey party." He sighed.   
  
Rogue walked out of the ironworks factory, she noticed Scott's visor was on the ground, so she picked it up and handed it back to its rightful owner. "There you go. Ah only took a short-term dose of your power. You should be back to normal soon." She explained.  
  
"You are like an Angel, Kate." Scott sighed as he smiled at her.  
  
"Mah name's not Kate and ah'm no Angel." Rogue told him sternly as she walked over to where Kitty was standing off by herself. She'd seen into the minds of to love struck men today and never had she been more envious of the girl she had just helped rescue. "C'mon Kitty, we should go." Rogue sighed sadly.  
  
"Yeah, like, we've wasted a whole day saving your x-butts." Kitty commented as she followed Rogue down the road, it was going to be a long walk back to the Boardinghouse and when they got there . . .   
  
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX  
  
Freddy landed with a loud thud in the city dump sending the seagulls flying, and cackling, into the sky. Freddy got shakily back onto his feet, he grabbed an old tire and hurled it up at the birds. "STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" He yelled as he slipped and landed face down in the garbage again. The last bit of Freddy's rage broke down into a fit of angry sobs as he stayed down.  
  
"Need a hand?" a voice called down from one of the junk hills.   
  
Freddy sat up with tears still streaming down his red face, he didn't care anymore. He wiped his face so he could see more clearly just who was addressing him. "You two again?" Freddy asked in confusion as he spotted the couple of guys that had been by the collapsed scaffolding back at Bayville High. "Wha' d'you want?" Freddy sniffled trying to regain his composer.  
  
"We're here to help, yo?" Todd called down to Freddy. Lance and Todd had gone to the dump after being unsuccessful at finding Kitty, Rogue or Freddy anywhere else.  
  
Freddy's brow furrowed in confusion as he stopped crying. "Why would you guys wanna help me?" He asked.  
  
"Cause, as corny as it sounds, that's what the Brotherhood's all about. It's why Rogue saved you from Jean and the rest of the X-Men." Lance yelled down at Freddy. "We tried to warn you before."  
  
"Brotherhood? Rogue . . . " Freddy muttered to himself, "You mean you guys are mutants too?"  
  
"Yeah, yo, we're part of the Brotherhood with Mystique, but Jean ain't she's part of the X-Men. We tried to tell you that earlier today." Todd told him as he leapt down to where Freddy was.   
  
Lance followed half sliding to the bottom on accident. He held out his gloved hand for Freddy to shake. "I'm Lance and he's Toad."  
  
Freddy sat thinking for a second, he wasn't so sure he could trust these guys. It could be another trick. "Well why did that Rogue girl attack me, huh?" Freddy said with a scowl.   
  
"Listen Freddy, she knew you wouldn't get hurt, she just wanted to get you as far away from the X-Geeks as fast as possible. Cause they woulda hurt you, maybe even killed you to get at, Miss Perfect, Jean." Lance explained he knew if he could play Jean of as the ultimate evil in this situation Freddy's little fight with Rogue would be forgotten.   
  
Freddy stood and gave Lance's hand a good shake, "Name's Freddy."  
  
Lance smiled. "C'mon, my jeeps this way and you might wanna thank Rogue when we get home." Lance stated as he started hiking back up the junk heap.  
  
"Yeah . . . I guess." Freddy said, he was still a bit confused, but Lance seemed to know what was going on better than he did at the moment. He started up the hill after Lance and Todd, who had reached the top in one jump.  
  
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX  
  
Rogue and Kitty stood stalk still in the doorway of the Brotherhood Boarding House. Inside Lance was talking to Mystique which was perfectly normal since he was the team's field leader. Todd was trying to stay out of Mystique's sight, still normal, but the fact that Freddy's massive form was what blocked him from view was far from the norm. In fact it was quite terrifying when you thought he might want some payback for being shot into a dump earlier.  
  
Then Freddy spotted them and walked over toward them. "Hey thanks for the help earlier, Rogue . . . and you must be Kitty, huh?" Freddy asked with a smile. Freddy noticed the confused looks on their faces. "Oh! It's alright. Lance and Toad explained everything to me already."   
  
Rogue and Kitty looked over at the boys Todd smiled back, but Lance was still engrossed in explaining why everyone was late and why all the boys now smelled as bad as Toad. "Oh . . . that's good." Kitty said as she realized they weren't going to be crushed.  
  
Lance looked over as he finished talking to Mystique. "Yeah, good work getting Freddy away from the X-Men, Rogue." Lance said in a congratulatory voice.  
  
"Uh, thanks Lance, twas nothin' . . . " Rogue said what she thought was the answer he wanted.  
  
"Rogue is it true you managed to combine Cyclops and Blob's powers?" Mystique asked as she looked Rogue over a couple of times.   
  
"Yeah . . . it was the only way to get ol' Freddy away from the X-Men." Rogue told Mystique as she started to catch onto Lance's story.  
  
"Amazing, your gaining control over your powers faster than even I thought." Mystique muttered as she headed upstairs to start typing up a status report to send to Magneto. She stopped at the top of the stairs wheeled around and looked at the clock. "You should all go to bed I'm calling a double training session in the morning."  
  
"Now that ya mention it, I am a bit tiered." Freddy yawned.  
  
"Ya need any help findin' your room?" Rogue asked as Freddy started plodding down the hall.  
  
"Nah., Mystique, let me drop off my stuff here before I went to school. I know where it is." Freddy muttered as he disappeared down the hall.  
  
"So, like, how did you guys convince him not to kill Rogue?" Kitty asked as soon as she heard Freddy's door shut.  
  
"Easy, we blamed it all on the X-Geeks, yo?" Todd told Kitty with a sly smile.  
  
Rogue frowned. "Y'know, Magneto says all us mutants are gonna have to pull together and fight on the same team one day." She reminded her present teammates, wiping the smile off Todd's face.  
  
"I know, yo? It's just that it's more important to get our team united first . . . then we can worry about gettin' the X-G - Men to see things our way." Todd explained in a hurried fashion, Rogue nodded understandingly, but it was obvious she still didn't think it was right.  
  
Lance sighed heavily. "Yeah, believe me . . . we know."  
  
********************************************************************************  
  
I should right stuff here, really I should, but it's 11:00 pm. I can't even remember what happened at the beginning of this Chapter. I call it Stupid Chapter 7. . . a lot. It's 16 pages long, more than last time. Wow. I had to watch 'Mutant Crush' So many time I lost count . . . It was funny the last time. I laughed like Pyro . . . so maybe I'm just crazy, oh well. I'll write more tomorrow.   
  
Next Chap: Pietro and Evan . . . I know you're all ecstatic. Maybe it will be typed faster cause Pietro's fast and then we'll all be happy and laugh like Pyro. 


	8. The BOM

Second Time Round  
  
PF! Represent! Yo!  
  
Disclaimer: I have never read or seen the Lord of the flies, Half-N-Half likes that book though and they make students read it now . . . well at least the good teachers that actually follow the curriculum do. My teacher didn't make us read it, obviously, all we did in that class was act out Romeo and Juliet, I got to be Tybalt. Then I died and he said I didn't have to attend his class anymore . . . Yes, but anyway I disclaim Asmar and Piggy and they have very little to do with this chapter . . .   
  
Note: This chap was delayed a long time cause I couldn't think of what to do with it. I wanted a chap to focus on Pietro, but I couldn't really think of what to do for it and I get yelled at a lot for down playing the speed demon. I didn't want to just move onto Middleverse cause then Forge would pull focus and I like Pietro, so I'd feel bad if he got completely cheated out of his first appearance. Besides I've been attacked by Pietro fans before, see the scars, well actually that ones from a Remy fan, but the one to the left, that was for turning Quickie into a monkey.   
  
Todd had never really cared at all about Scott and Jean. Seeing Wanda again had triggered a lot of emotions, not all of them pleasant. He'd always have a certain hatred and disrespect toward Magneto though he kept it hidden. Mystique had, did and would forevermore inspire a certain fear in him. The way he felt about Kitty would always be determined by the way Lance felt about Kitty. Rogue was untouchable. Freddy was the kind older brother. Lance was the strong one . . . Todd knew where they all stood in his life, but what about Pietro. He had no standing, because he couldn't stop moving, and changing.   
  
There had been times when Todd had hated Pietro, but part of the reason he would hate him so much at times was because he knew they were brothers. Pietro had gone from Friend and Brother to Spy and Traitor and back again more times than Todd could remember. Lance seemed to have settled on just being annoyed by him, but Todd wasn't so sure as he watched the young speed demon zip around the room introducing himself.   
  
Pietro had arrived late last night, when everyone was asleep except for maybe Mystique. Todd had been woken up by her and Magneto's argument. It was about field leaders, Magneto wanted his son to gain leadership skills, but Mystique thought that switching Lance from the position to make room for some new mutant would disrupt the team too much. Todd hadn't read into the bosses' spat when he'd originally heard it, but now he knew their argument was about manipulation, power and fear. Both of them sought to further control the Brotherhood through field leaders they new were loyal to one over the other, but Mystique won out in the end through fear. A fear of Lance's reaction to being replaced and the physical damages such a reaction might cause.  
  
At that moment Todd's train of thought was derailed by Kitty.  
  
"Hey Mystique . . . " Kitty asked with a look of contemplation on her face, "like, how are we all going to fit into Lance's jeep?"  
  
Mystique frowned for a second furrowing her brow, the jeeps seating room had been tight with Rogue and Freddy had joined. Todd had walked to school a couple of times just to save himself the hassle of sitting next to Rogue on her 'DON'T TOUCH ME!' days. "This could pose a problem . . . " Mystique muttered to herself.  
  
"No sweat," Pietro responded with a smile, "I can out run that old rig any day."  
  
Mystique looked thoughtful for a moment. "No, Magneto wants to keep the powers on the down low as much as possible. Rogue and Kitty can get a ride with me today. We'll figure something better out later." She sighed before leading the two girls out of the house.  
  
The boys followed them out the door and watched Ms. Darkholme and the girls pull out of the drive way and take off. After they were out of sight Lance walked over and got into his jeep.   
  
"Shotty" Todd called as he hopped up into the seat next to Lance. Freddy, who had never intended to sit in the smaller front seat, climbed into the back. Pietro looked a bit annoyed by the fact he had to sit in the back with 'The Blob', but decided against voicing his opinions of the seating arrangement. Instead he just stood with his arms crossed glaring up at Todd.   
  
"Will you h-" Lance cut himself off when he realized Pietro was already in the back seat and just decided to scowl at the steering wheel as he started the jeep and pulled it out of the driveway.   
  
"Y'know I could run to California before this old hunk of metal got half way to the school." Pietro boasted.  
  
"Y'know," Lance growled as his brow furrowed into an even deeper scowl, "This jeep is, like, brand new."   
  
Todd snickered and shook his head.  
  
"What?" Lance snapped glancing over at Todd.  
  
Todd continued to laugh and shake his head. "Man," Todd laughed, "You just said 'like', yo?"  
  
"What? No, I didn't." Lance denied angrily.  
  
"Lance . . . " Pietro started before Todd cut him off.  
  
"Yeah," Todd chuckled, "Yeah ya did."  
  
"Uh, Lance . . . " Pietro tried again.  
  
"Maybe you've been hangin' out with Kitty too much?" Freddy suggested.  
  
"Lance!" Pietro stammered in a more urgent tone.  
  
"Will you all just - shut up!" Lance yelled over his shoulder at the others.  
  
"LANCE!" Pietro yelled.  
  
"WHAT!?" Lance shouted back.  
  
"You're-now-20mph-over-the-maximum-speed-limit-and-you-just-ran-a-red-light-and-there's-a-" At that moment a police siren drown out Pietro's words.  
  
Lance started to slow down and pull his jeep to the side of the road.  
  
"What-are-you-doing!?" Pietro asked in disbelief.  
  
"My jeep can't beat the cop's engine." Lance stated bluntly as he stopped the jeep.  
  
"I'm-up-for-warrant-you-moron!" Pietro sped through his words, full of panic, as the cop got out of his car.  
  
"What?" Lance asked in an exasperated tone as he tried to decipher the slipstream of words that had come from the speed demons mouth.  
  
"Wait, how'd a cop ever catch you?" Todd asked after hearing the word warrant.  
  
"Would you like the list of laws you broke or just the tick- Hey don't I know you?" The cop asked, but he was looking at Todd, not Pietro.  
  
Todd looked at the cop for a second then realized it was one of the cops that had arrested him after the bus incident. Todd froze for a second as he wondered if the cop would open fire if he jumped. Todd just kept staring the cop in the eyes like an idiot. He could almost see the guy's memory click into place.  
  
"You!" The cop exclaimed as he reached for his radio to call in backup. Freddy hit the cop in the side of the head with his fist. The cop crumpled to the ground unconscious.   
  
"Nice goin' Blob!" Pietro stated approvingly as he hopped out of the jeep to examine the cop.  
  
"Is he all right?" Freddy asked sounding a bit worried, "I thought he was goin' for his gun."   
  
"I think ya may have givin' him a concussion." Pietro commented then with a sly grin on his face he grabbed the cop and put him back in his car. "This gives me an idea." Pietro said as he opened the hood to look at the motor.  
  
"Pietro, what are you doing?" Lance asked as he and the others got out of the jeep.  
  
"Well you said the only reason we couldn't out run 'em was cause they have a bigger engine, so we'll just switch 'em." Pietro explained as he examined the cop's engine. "Do you think it'll fit in your jeep?"   
  
"Yeah, it would fit." Lance answered without thinking then realized what he was agreeing to. "Wait, no! Mystique would flip if she ever found out we stole an engine from a cop! Besides we don't need his engine, cause we don't need to run from cops."  
  
"Hello! Earth to Rock-Head, I'm wanted and this pig seemed to be rather well acquainted with Toad." Pietro shot back, "I'd say a bigger engine would be a wise investment right about now."  
  
Lance looked over at Freddy and Todd for a minute then down at the engine. "I can't believe I'm doing this." Lance sighed as he set to work on disconnecting the cop's motor.   
  
After Pietro's pestering about how he could disconnect and reconnect the engines faster; Lance's 'Touch my jeep and die!' attitude getting on everyone's nerves; Freddy's almost dropping the cop's engine on Pietro; Lance finally allowing Pietro to reconnect the engine to the cop's car and Todd's brilliant idea about making it look like the cop ran off the road and smashed the front of his car to cover their tracks almost getting them all caught, the boys finally arrived at Bayville High in time for fifth period.   
  
"Wait - Lunch just ended - What's the point of going to school after lunch is over?" a grease-covered Freddy complained as they walked into the school.   
  
"Y'know Blob, some people actually go to school to learn things." Pietro muttered as he tried in vain to rub a small dark spot off his shirt while remaining completely oblivious to the large black smudge on his cheek.  
  
"I know that," Freddy responded a bit annoyed, "I'm just sayin' all I have left is P.E. and cooking - oh, wait I have cooking sixth!" Freddy announced happily.  
  
"Yeah, and I have a test. Why are we here again?" Todd asked.  
  
"We're here to pretend like we were always here, so Ms. Darkholme doesn't give us detention." Lance told them as he spotted Kitty and Rogue walking up ahead of them. "And to make sure those two back us when we say we were in class. Hey Rogue, Kitty!"  
  
Both the girls turned around. "Like, there you guys are!" Kitty exclaimed as she ran up to the boys, she was about to hug Lance when she realized he was covered in grease and oil. "What happened to you?"  
  
"We had car troubles . . . " Lance told the girls.  
  
Kitty looked confused for a minute. "But your jeep is, like, brand new."  
  
Todd cracked up and started laughing.   
  
"What's, so funny?" Rogue asked.  
  
"Nothing!" Lance exclaimed suddenly. Making the girls even more suspicious, but before they could pester the boys any further the late bell to fifth period rang.   
  
"Like, oh my gosh, we're, like, late for Home Ec." Kitty yelped as her curiosity gave way to her fear of being marked tardy. Rogue didn't seem too stressed, but Kitty grabbed her arm and started dragging her away anyway.  
  
"Oh no, Todd, you're late for your test." Lance said before shoving the smaller boy into his fifth. Then he glared at the other two boys in a way that read: Get moving.  
  
Freddy just shrugged and headed off to his P.E. locker. Pietro on the other hand continued to stand around like an idiot. "Where am I supposed to be right now?"   
  
Lance couldn't believe it. "Wait. You don't know your schedule?" Pietro nodded an affirmative. "But we live with the Principal, how can you not know?"   
  
"I was supposed to pick one up before first period, but someone decided to have some 'car troubles' so I didn't get one." Pietro stated simply.  
  
Lance looked like he was about to drop the roof down a couple of feet, when the door next to them slammed open and Todd started dragging his desk out of the classroom. His teacher was still yelling at him as he shut the door. Todd looked over at Lance and Pietro, they both bore a questioning look.   
  
"Well how was I supposed to know what 'Asmar' was and why Piggys suck it?" Todd whined, "I'll teach her Lord of the Flies." He muttered as a devious grin spread across his face.   
  
"Guess what Toad, you get to help Pietro find his fifth period while I go to mine." Lance told him after deciding to ignore Todd's last comment. Then he headed off to his own fifth before either of the other boys could find a complaint.  
  
Todd and Pietro watched him go, then Todd turned to Pietro with a questioning look and asked, "Do you seriously wanna go to your fifth and sixth or would you rather help me look for the laboratory that's supposed to be hidden under the school somewhere?"  
  
"What do you think?" Pietro replied and with that settled they set out to find Forge's lab.  
  
After about twenty minutes of roaming the school and dodging hall monitors without finding so much as a broom closet with a microscope in it. Pietro was getting bored and Todd was getting angry at himself for not being able to remember where the stupid lab had been. Lance and Todd had decided it'd probably be a wise investment to invite Forge onto their team before the X-Men swooped down upon him and started in on their 'Come be one of us's. There were only two problems. One they seemed to have two completely different ideas on where the lab had been. Two neither one of them knew how to get Forge out of his lil' Dino/Dragon zappy thing, but they'd decided they'd figure that one out later.   
  
"Alright, I'm convinced this secret lab or whatever it is doesn't exist. C'mon there must be someway to get a couple of kicks outta Bayville." Pietro ranted rolling his eyes at the word Bayville. "Do you know where they sell fireworks around here?"  
  
"Are you serious? How many cops have to get knocked unconscious before you quit?" Todd asked as he cocked his head to one side. In all actuality the location of three stores that sold explosives under the counter came to mind. He was just a bit wary of attracting Police Departments attention twice in one day.  
  
"Oh yea, I forgot the cops round here know you by your face. What'd you do anyway?" Pietro asked though he wasn't really paying attention as he was trying to think of way to amuse himself for the next few minutes before that too would be deemed boring.   
  
"Enough to get myself locked up if I'm not careful and breakin' out again isn't my idea of a good time."Todd stated absent mindedly, now he kinda wanted fireworks too. He could always just tell Pietro where one of the shops was and let him get them and light them and he could just watch and they were fast enough. Todd sighed as he picked up a pencil and a piece of paper and wrote down the address of the smallest shop and handed it to Pietro. "Ask for Roland, he has one eye ya can't miss him."  
  
Pietro's face lit up evilly just before he disappeared off into the distance. Todd just sat back and waited for a few minutes until the speedster screeched to a halt again beside him with an arm full of various explosives. "Quick-name-a-teacher-you-hate-who-has-a-window!" Pietro gasped.  
  
"Mr. Batton the chem teacher." Todd said with a wicked grin as he pointed out the hapless teacher's class.  
  
Pietro took aim and lit off the first bottle rocket, unfortunately he aimed a bit high and the boys lost track of it. "I shot a rocket in the air, and where it lands I do not care." Pietro commented as he set up another one. This one hit its mark resulting in massive amounts of screaming and the fire alarm being pulled. "I'd say that be our cue to leave." Pietro chuckled as he turned around to pick up the rest of the fireworks.   
  
Then suddenly the unexplainable occurred, the first rocket they had shot off came flying back over the school still sparking and landed right in the middle of the pile of fireworks. For a second Pietro and Todd just stared at this perplexing development then the other fireworks caught fire and started shooting off in every direction.   
  
"RUN!" Pietro yelped as one nearly took his ear off.   
  
Todd was already ahead of him and half way around the building where he spotted a very disgruntled football coach rounding the other corner. "Quick down here, yo?" Todd said stopping Pietro as he whipped around the corner after Todd.   
  
Pietro sped down to the door below and tried to pull it open. "It's locked." He complained.  
  
Todd simply jumped down after him and kicked it open then they both jumped inside and shut it. "Okay, let's just sneak out of here real quiet like before anyone else figures out this is where the fireworks came-" Just then a Piccolo Pete began to whistle extremely loud. "from." Todd finished knowing that several more Bayville High staff was probably on their way over. Todd turned around to see Pietro was now looking over the next room and obviously not listening.  
  
"Man, look at all this junk." Pietro wondered as he looked though one of the very dusty widows set in the double doors.   
  
Todd looked in through the other window. There were tons of crates and old computers and just general junk lying around. One piece in particular caught Todd's eye, it was the Dino/Dragon zappy thing. Todd took a step back and kicked the door down.  
  
"Hey, Todd . . . the cops didn't bust you for breaking and entering did they?" Pietro asked as he watched Todd walk into the room.  
  
"No, why do you ask?" Todd replied as he grabbed the much sought after 'zappy thing'.  
  
"No reason." Pietro said as he wandered into the room and started looking at all the old computers just as they all flicked on.  
  
Todd looked up as Forge's face appeared on all of the screens. "What did you touch?" He asked getting a quick 'What did I touch? What did you touch?' look from Pietro before Forge's voice sounded from the old speakers.   
  
"January twenty-second, nineteen seventy-eight. Hi, there. If you're hearing this message, you've got ten seconds before this lab self-destructs. Have a nice day. What's left of it." After his little speech Forge's face disappeared and a countdown took its place.  
  
Both boys bolted for the door and then barreled outside just as the lab exploded. They kept up the pace until they'd arrived back at the boardinghouse. They walked in trying not to draw attention away from Freddy who seemed to be retelling some story from his football practice that day.  
  
"Where have you two been?" Rogue asked as soon as she spotted Todd and Pietro.  
  
"Yeah and, like, what is that thing?" Kitty added pointing out the 'zappy thing' Todd was carrying.  
  
"Hardware store." Pietro stated.  
  
"Power tool." Todd added.  
  
"Why don't you start over from the beginning, so Todd and Pietro can hear the whole story Freddy?" Lance asked rather loudly drawing the girls' attention away from Todd as he stuck the 'zappy thing' in the hall closet.   
  
"Yeah, I wanna hear, yo?" Todd called out as he hopped over to where the others were sitting.  
  
"All right," Freddy agreed happily. "So, I was just about to tackle Duncan when this bottle rocket came out of no where and thwacked him on top of his helmet. Then it ricocheted off his helmet and hit me right in the stomach, but I'm the Blob so it didn't do nothin' so I grabbed it and threw it back the way it came. I hear it hit its mark too." Freddy ended proudly.  
  
Pietro just kinda sat slack jawed for a moment. "Your aims better than I thought." Todd muttered under his breath. Pietro regained his senses and decided glowering at himself was the appropriate course of action at that moment.  
  
"You're lucky that rocket came along when it did, if you'd of smashed Duncan Miss Pris Jean Grey woulda sent the X-Men after ya." Rogue laughed.  
  
"Ah, I coulda taken 'em easy." Freddy boasted. "Well as long as you and Kitty weren't helping them."  
  
"Where'd you find the zappy thing?" Lance asked Todd off to the side.  
  
"Doesn't matter we blew everything else up." Todd explained.  
  
"Oh. Everything?" Lance asked earnestly.   
  
"Well after we blew up the lab we didn't really have time to do an inventory." Todd quipped.  
  
"We'll have to check it out later. Hey, we should do guys against girls next training session." Lance said getting back into the others' discussion.  
  
"Sounds like fun only there's four of you and, like, only two of us." Kitty pointed out.   
  
"You can have Todd." Lance said waving him off.  
  
Rogue shrugged, "Okay."  
  
"Wait what? Why do I get the feeling I'm being bartered off?" Todd asked.  
  
"Oh never mind Todd. We are so going to beat you guys." Kitty stated.  
  
"Ha, you dare challenge us?" Pietro asked mockingly.  
  
"Hey, we could take you anywhere any time." Kitty growled getting in Pietro's face.  
  
"Now, then." Pietro said smugly.  
  
"Alright, let's go!" Kitty half shouted as she lead the rest of them out of the house.  
  
Todd, however, lingered a bit longer so he could grab the 'zappy thing' out of the closet and put it up in his room.  
  
"Todd!" Kitty shouted back in the house.  
  
"Commin'!" He shouted back before hopping out of the house to join the rest of his team.  
  
Next Chap will hopefully get to forge I can assure you the term 'zappy thing' is going to be used even more! Are you sick of it yet? Hopefully no.  
  
This is the Chap that never ends it just goes on and on my friends some fool started typing it not knowing what it was. Especially that ending? What is that madness and why is it 3am? It's short too it just took forever cause I lost track of it. 


	9. Are We Dead Yet

Second Time Round

Yo, the name is ProFool, the logic is erratic. . .

Disclaimer: Gravity works.

First off I apologize for being such a hoser head and not updating in like forever. I started college and even though its not all that difficult it has been rather time consuming and then I got on a drawing kick so that takes up a lot of my spare time. Anyway me bad no writy on the walk walk , but I am taking a script writing class so maybe I'll start writing more frequently! One can only hope.

Note: I wanted to put a training session for Dan in this chapter, but then I decided it would work better in one of the next chapters. I actually like writing training sessions and battles and well just anything that would make Sabretooth actually want to read, but I thought if I put one in every chapter it might get kinda old. So, assume they train in the time between chapters and I'll continue to throw in sessions from time to time especially if I'm prompted. For now you'll just have to drown your sorrows in a little X-Men scrap. On another note one of the other Anti-XYo writers just begged me to keep Rogue with the brotherhood and I have noticed concerns for the poor girl in reviews. Wether she'll stay or not I'm still not sure, but I have been thinking about it.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

(Forge's ex-lab)

"Did you find anything yet!?" Pietro called out for the umpteenth time.

"No! Will you just shut up and watch the door already?" Lance growled as he started sifting through another box of lightly toasted papers.

"Why did we bring him again?" Todd asked annoyed.

"He followed us." Lance sighed.

"Oh yeah." Todd muttered as he went back to fiddling with the only computer that was still giving off sparks.

Pietro of course was officially bored with looking out for faculty on a freakin' Saturday and it had been an hour since Todd had last managed to give himself a sizable shock from any of the electronics. This brought the amusement level down to zero. "Bor-red," he sighed rather loudly.

"Then go ho-ome." Lance responded.

"This-is-stupid!" Pietro complained as he sped down into the fairly torched lab, "We-don't-even-  
know-what-this-thingamajigger-does-yet!" He added picking up Forge's zappy thing and looking down it nozzle to see if anything was inside.

"Well if you don't know what it does maybe you shouldn't be messing around with it." Todd sneered.

"This coming from the frog-boy who's been electrocuted how many times today?" Pietro quipped.

"Put it down." Lance demanded coldly.

"Make me." Pietro retorted. Making Lance angry was fun for two reasons: One he could never do any serious harm to the speedster and two Mystique always ended up blaming Lance, due to his destructive nature.

"The guy rigged his own lab with explosives, and you think pushing random buttons on one of his machines is a good thing?" Todd asked, slightly amazed at Pietro's stupidity.

"Who said anything about pushing buttons?" Pietro asked with irritating smirk as he traced the edge of one of the buttons with his finger. Pietro had no real intention of hitting any of the buttons of course, he simply found teasing his 'brothers' highly amusing.

"Stop messing around Pietro!" Lance's voice rose with his concern that the idiot might actually end up zapping himself into another dimension.

Pietro rolled his eyes, "Relax Lance, this things probably some stupid 70's food processor or something. I'm just saying maybe we should test it out on like a rutabaga or a tree-"

"Or we could just put the zappy thing down and get back to work." Todd suggested.

"Zappy thing? Don't-tell-me-you-tested-it-without-me!? How does it work!?" He asked looking it over with renewed interest.

"Just shoot me now!" Lance moaned realizing that now they'd never get Pietro to leave it alone.

"Okay!" Pietro laughed pointing it at the wall next to Lance intent on giving him a scare, he hit one of the buttons, and disappeared.

"Maybe we should told him he was holding it backwards. . ." Todd muttered in disbelief.

Lance was already panicked, "Oh no! No, no, no! How do we get him out?" He asked grabbing the zappy thing and shaking it.

"That was the point of this little escapade wasn't it?" Todd asked taking the zappy thing away from Lance. "Come in here find out how to get Forge out of the zappy thing and leave, right?"

"Yeah, but Forge can stay in there for three more months and no one will care! How are we going to explain to Magneto that we zapped his only son into another dimension!?" Lance asked anxiously.

"First you explain how you found out Pietro is his son and in the meantime I'm gonna go zap the Nightcreeper." Todd growled, he would be worried, but at the moment he was a bit to angry at Pietro to care.

Lance just looked at Todd wide eyed. "You are crazy, I don't like the little creep that much either but-"

"But, the X-men got Forge out last time, so if we want to get Pietro out before Mystique hands us our heads on a platter we better hope they can do it again." Todd finished by hopping out of the lab.

"Todd, wait!" Lance called out.

Todd paused for a moment a few feet away from the labs entrance and waited for Lance to catch up.

"We need Mystiques car for that plan." Lance stated as he caught up.

Todd's face fell a bit, "Right. . . You zap it and I'll find the Nightcreeper."

"What!?" Lance exclaimed as Todd handed him the zappy thing and pointed out which button to use.

"Good luck with that!" Todd said cheerily and then hopped away like his life depended on it.

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(Middleverse)

Pietro stood stock still, "Am I dead?", he asked the empty space around him.

No one answered.

So, Pietro set off in search of answers at his usual whirlwind speed, "Hello! Hello! Hellooo!"

"Whoa where'd you come from?" Forge asked as Pietro came inches away from crashing into him.

"The land of the living." Pietro answered testily, while trying to pin down where he'd seen the guys face before. "WAIT! You're the guy who made the food processor that killed me!"

"What?" Forge half laughed in a confused manor.

"Yes, you killed me and now I'm going to haunt you! Booooooooooo!" Pietro wailed.

"But, you're not really dead, you must have gotten caught in the ray of my trans-dimensional projector." Forge explained as Pietro made odd faces at him and continued booing.

Pietro stopped his nonsense for a second, "If I'm not dead then where the heck are we?"

"In a pocket dimension my machine created, I call it middleverse." Forge explained as he headed back to his work table.

"So, basically we're stuck in some sort of limbo and all you do is sit around and invent more deadly food processing devices." Pietro asked.

Forge nodded an affirmative.

Pietro continued, "Well if I'm not dead then I'm probably going to die of boredom, so BOOOOOOOO!"

Forge was about to go back to work when suddenly a car dropped out of no where. "Far out man!" Forge exclaimed as his arm transformed into the ultimate power tool and he started dissecting the vehicle.

"They are testing the food processor without me! AND they're destroying Mystique's stuff without me! There just asking to be haunted!" Pietro

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"An angel is like you Kate, and you are like an ang-" Scott stopped abruptly as Todd landed on the table he and Rogue were sitting at.

"Hey, Summers you have any idea where Nightcreeper is?" Todd asked.

Scott ignored him for a moment and leaned over slightly to get a better look at Rogue. "And you think Kurt acts like an annoying little brother?" He asked her rhetorically.

Rogue took this as her cue to get rid of her 'annoying little brother.' "We're trying tah rehearse here, Toad."

Todd glanced over at her, "I'll leave as soon as he tells me where Nightcreeper is."

"Why do you want to know?" Scott asked annoyed.

Todd paused and looked very thoughtful. Then just as Scott was wondering if the Toad was actually so stupid that he'd forgotten why he was looking for Kurt in the first place Todd answered coyly, "I intend to zap him into another dimension with a piece of machinery that I barely know how to operate."

Scott just stared at him vacantly.

"Oh, just tell him where he is already." Rogue sighed.

"I don't know where Kurt is," Scott responded, "and frankly I'm glad."

Todd looked cheated then hopped away with a short "Goodbye, Rogue."

"Why do you hang out with that guy?" Scott asked as he watched Todd hop away.

"Read your lines." Rogue growled.

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Lance was sitting outside of the Institute in his jeep when Todd hopped up. "You haven't found Nightcrawler yet, huh?" Lance asked.

"No, you zapped the car?" Todd asked.

"Yeah, and I think Nightcrawler's in there." Lance said motioning to the Institute.

"Fun," Todd sighed sarcastically, "so all I have to do is get in there without being seen in broad daylight zap Nightcreeper and get out again without getting skewered by Wolverine or something."

"Or we could just break in there, attract as much attention as necessary, zap Nightcrawler, get caught, and then lead them back to the lab." Lance stated as he got out of the jeep and passed off the 'zappy thing' to Todd.

"Right, or we could do that. . ." Todd muttered as Lance used his powers to knock down the gate. ". . .without getting skewered. . ."

Lance strolled onto the grounds as if he owned them, ripping up large portions of the landscaping where the defense system activated.

The X-men would think he was just being destructive, but to Todd it was a sharp reminder of how little control Avalanche actually had over his powers. "I'm surprised we never died from your avalanching everything."

"It gave you faster reflexes in the end." Lance half laughed.

"It gave me a limp." Todd quipped as Storm, Spyke, Wolverine and Nightcrawler rushed out to meet their attackers.

"Why are you attacking us?" Storm asked trying to win the battle through reason before blows were exchanged.

"Who said anything about an attack? I'm just here to do a little redecorating." Lance stated simply as he took out another gun turret in front of Spyke and Wolverine forcing them both to jump aside.

Wolverine took offense at this and launched a counter attack closely followed by Spyke and Nightcrawler.

Lance made a pathetic attempt at forming a quick rock shield. The actual result was more of a bulge in the earth's surface that Wolverine crashed head long into.

Spyke had enough time to poll vault on top of the mound before it crashed back down sending smaller earth waves out around it and sending the young mutant to his knees.

Nightcrawler made the most sensible choice of all, he ported just behind Avalanche. Sadly it was the wrong choice because Toad had been behind Avalanche all along and he was waiting for the little Nightcreeper to pop up.

Toad smirked and zapped Nightcrawler before he had time to say, "Vha?"

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(Meanwhile wasting away in Middleverse)

Pietro had finally gotten Forge's goat by 'poltergeisting' away some of his inventions. . .

"I'm telling you this isn't limbo! You arn't even dead, man!" Forge shouted.

"Vha?" Kurt exclaimed as he landed right in front of Forge. "Vhere am I?" he asked disoriented.

Pietro zipped over to Forge, "You're right it's not limbo." Pietro took Kurt's hand and shook it, "Welcome to Hell." He said with a smile.

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Scott ran up to the institute with Jean in tow. Xavier had contacted the two of them telepathically after Storm had shot out a couple of lightning bolts and forced 'the brotherhood' to surrender.

"What'd you do to Kurt?" Scott asked the second he spotted the two boys that Wolverine was currently interrogating.

Wolverine answered for them, "These morons keep saying the sent him to a different dimension under the school."

"No," Todd corrected, "We morons keep saying we sent zapped him into a different dimension with the zappy thing we found in a lab under the school."

"We'll show you where it is." Lance added.

Scott thought on it for a moment, if it hadn't been for what Todd had said in the park earlier he would have sworn they were making it up, but now he wasn't so sure. "Alright, take us to the lab and then we'll talk." Of course the main question in Scott's mind at the moment was 'why Kurt?' but that question would have to wait until after they'd made sure Kurt wasn't in any immediate danger.

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"Why in the land of the living would they zap him in here?" Pietro asked again.

"You're not dead." Forge responded again as he continued to work on yet another new invention. "Heh, done!"

Pietro continued on as if Forge had said nothing, "Why would they force me to spend all eternity with one of the X-geeks? Why?"

"Vhat is it?" Kurt asked trying to ignore Pietro's little rant.

"This should alter the phase-shift frequency of your teleport power, allowing you to teleport back to the real world." Forge explained.

"Well it's not like its gonna kill you or nothin'" Pietro chimed in.

"You're not dead." Forge growled then carried on conversation with Kurt. "The only problem is we need to get someone from the outside to hit the reset button on my machine."

"If de Brotherhood haven't destroyed it yet." Kurt sighed.

"They wouldn't do that," Pietro said finally taking on a more serious tone, "they've wasted too much time and effort trying to get me out of here."

"How so?" Forge asked.

"Oh yeah, don't you think it's a might bit convenient that they've only zapped two things and they're the exact two things you needed to get us all out of here." Pietro pointed out.

"But how would they know?" Forge asked.

"Duh, they must have finally found the instruction manual to your little food processor." Pietro explained in a rather exasperated tone.

"Hey look it's Scott and he's got de zappy thing!" Kurt said as the entire X-men team filed into Forge's ex-lab followed by Todd and Lance.

Forge looked over at Pietro who simply flashed him an 'I told you so' smile. Forge also remained silent and deep in thought.

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"Alright, were here so what now?" Scott asked Todd and Lance.

Todd shrugged. "We're morons remember." Lance answered.

"Maybe we should blow it up." Evan suggested.

"That might just work." Scott stated thoughtfully.

Both Lance and Todd were stunned by this conclusion. "What if that doesn't work?" Todd asked at length.

Scott looked perturbed for a moment, he really wanted to blow the thing up, then suddenly Kurt appeared for a split second. All he managed to get out was, "Reset, don't d-" and he was gone again.

"Uh, you guys saw that, right? " Scott asked the group in general.

"See he's still alive." Lance said in self defense of any thoughts the X-men might have held against them.

Jean ignored both of them and tried to grasp what was really important. "What was he saying?"

"He said, 'Reset. Don't.' Y'know, don't reset it. He wants you to blow it up. Do it!" Evan answered quickly.

"It sounded more like a warning to me. I think he want us to reset the thing." Scott stated as he looked the 'zappy thing' over and found the button. "There reset!"

In a heartbeat Forge, Kurt and Pietro appeared in front of them.

"Pietro!" Evan exclaimed, "Man, we should have blown it up."

"Should-'ave-could-'ave-would-'ave,-but-didn't," Pietro laughed, "better-luck-next-time-X-Geeks." Pietro zoomed out of the lab, it was the first time anyone noticed that Lance and Todd had also long departed.

Pietro jumped in the back of Lance's jeep. "What took you guys, so long I almost went nuts in there!" Pietro yelled in mock anger.

"In all fairness we told you not to mess around with the zappy thing." Todd pointed out.

Pietro just rolled his eyes, and decided to change the subject. "Where are we going now? The Boardinghouse is that way remember."

"Where gonna make sure Forge doesn't join the X-Geeks." Lance stated as he pulled up to a random apartment building.

"How'd you know his name was Forge?" Pietro asked skeptically.

"His notes." Todd covered almost too quickly.

"Oh," Pietro responded not seeming to take notice.

After a short wait the boys saw Forge walk up to his old home. First he tried the key in the lock, but that didn't work, so he knocked on the door. An older man answered and they exchanged words, but eventually the door shut and Forge was left out in the cold.

Lance pulled up next to Forge, "Your family moved out to California ages ago. If you want we can give you a lift back to the Boardinghouse and you can give them a call."

"We looked up the number." Todd added.

Pietro had a million and a half questions as to when they had found time to make these preparations, but he knew enough to keep his mouth shut at the moment.

Forge considered the offer for a minute, part of him had a feeling he'd be safer with the X-Men, but his curiosity always won out over such feelings. He agreed, just like a much older version of him had told Todd and Lance he would. Forge would contact his parents that night and they would believe it was him, that was one bit of history that was destined to repeat itself.

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Look at that I went and put Scott and Rogue in close proximity again for a very short amount of time just to torment you all. The next chapter is going to be the Turn of the Rogue! Gasp! Will she stay with the Brotherhood or will she go with the X-Men! I don't even know! for! sure! yet!!!EXCLAMATION POINT!!!!!!! Reviews might make me type faster. . . !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	10. Stab of the Lance

Second Time Round

P.T.O. No one like a debtor so it's better if my orders are obeyed! P.F.

Disclaimer: It takes two days to log into . . . I blame Wolverine.

Please, Monsieur, another note: I mapped out all four seasons to help me figure out what to do with Rogue and I added a season five that will tie up a few loose ends. Season five was also the deciding point in Rogue's team situation.

Alright, UncannyAsianGirl, you wrote a freaking long review, so I figure you deserve some answers. Lucky, for me a few of you're questions will be answered in the chapter below, so I wont have to address them here.

Why Kurt didn't teleport the car through: I was actually going to put this in the chapter, but I forgot to while writing it. Oops. In the episode Forge doesn't know the car's there until he's already rigged Nightcrawlers lil teleporty changer thing, but in this one I dropped it right in front of him so I was just going to have him use the car battery and leave the car by the way side, cause comic Kurt could only teleport 300 additional pounds along with himself. So, him teleporting a car always bothered me.

Next issue transportation . . . well that's always been an issue, but anyways: (I'm only putting this up here cause I already started writing this chap and the way it's going I might not get to really address this) Of course non of the boarders would ever cop up to zapping her car, so Mystique will just have to file a police report saying it was stolen and then collect insurance on it. (If you'll remember our dear friend Risty had a car, and I seriously doubt the principal of Bayville high wants to advertise that she's spends time with the Boardinghouse delinquents.) Transportation will always be an issue, but Mystique will get a new car even if she has to ask Magneto for an advance in her paycheck!

As for watching episodes: it's true I usually watch them a lot, but Half-N-Half has the first two seasons on dvd now Huzzah! I don't want you all to think that I have to watch all over and over again, I mainly do it when I'm trying to figure out a certain action sequence or the set up of a place. Such as the insane asylum that Wanda's at, I'm majorly into the little know writing style of faction. So, I sat there and mapped out an entire escape route that one actually could use if they were in that certain asylum. If you watch the episode closely you will see the air duct I had Todd use.

This also plays into you're question about rooms at the boarding house: Do not try to map out the boarding house. . . it's so freaking complex. To get a good judge of the actual size watch Uprising, it gives you a shot from above. The place isn't as big as the mansion, but it goes way back. Also if you study the random front shots they often show you can see it has a basement just like my great aunt back in Minnesota's does! Huzzah! (Californian's don't get basements sadly) So, don't worry it's got enough room without me even throwing in the fact that it's got a tower.

As for the team size matter: The Brotherhood has more members than the X-men, isn't that a shocker? I mean the odds are never in favor of the 'bad guys'! Xavier must be having a panic attack! But wait! He has cerebro! He can make a truck load of new recruits appear out of no where. Woah, that was close, almost had the X-Men going into a battle against a larger opposition than they could ever possibly hope to handle. (I'm not going to be mean and play the odds in favor of the Brotherhood. That would majorly detract from the fun of my battle sequences, but don't you think it's kinda lame how by the end of the series all the X-men had to do was go storming full force into Kelly's office and suddenly the Brotherhood's choice dwindle down to A) drop building on Kelly, X-men and themselves or B) give up turn tail and run. No, I'm going to even out the teams with new recruits which will in affect give the new recruits a slightly larger role and increase battle amusement with there lack of skills. Plus it give the new recruits more of a reason to show up instead of one episode BOOM new recruits. . . why?)

On the not so dreaded topic of my pathetic spelling: Actually my spelling worse in real life, so count yourself lucky. The only time I have any real time to work on fanfiction is between the hours of 11pm - 5am on Fridays and Saturdays. If I'm lucky I get to make spelling corrections at 3am at that time if it doesn't have squiggly red lines under it I usually miss it or end up making it worse. In the last chapter it took me three tries to spell 'zappy thing' right.

And yes, one of the reasons Forge agreed to go with the Brotherhood is because he is very suspicious about how exactly Lance and Todd managed to read a manual that never existed. Oh, wait that might be in this chapter. . . Put 'Oh my Stars and Garters' At the beginning of your review if you actually read the entire note.

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"Ah, man! Total bummer, I've sent them pictures and told them stuff only I could know. Why don't they believe me?" Forge wondered allowed as he sat down at the kitchen table with the mail. On the top of the pile was a letter Forge written with 'Return to Sender' slapped across the front of it.

"It's called identity theft, look it up Einstein." Pietro jibed as he flipped through the rest of the mail.

"Like, maybe Mystique could arrange for you to fly out to California. Then you could show them you were a mutant and well. . ." Kitty stopped catching Forge's expression.

"Sorry, I'm just not sure my parents would dig the whole mutant thing. They were always kinda square." Forge sighed. "I mean my calling them after all these years was even to radical for them, they blocked the number remember."

"Well," Kitty started again, "at least you've got us. The Brotherhood's supposed to be like a family for mutants and Mystique said she'd let you use the basement as a new laboratory and she could, like, totally get you enrolled in Bayville High again if you want."

Forge smiled, "Thank's for the offer, but I think I've been at Bayville High long enough to last me the rest of my life."

"Is this Lance's report card?" Pietro asked no one in particular as he came across an envelope with Lance's name on it.

"I'll take it to him." Kitty laughed snatching it out of Pietro's hand.

"Hey! I wanted to read that!" Pietro squawked, he was about to give chase, but Kitty started running through a wall.

"Hey, Lance, it looks like you got a letter from the school." Kitty said as she phased into the living room.

"Why do we even get letters from school?" Freddy asked the room in general. "We live with the principal, you'd think she could just tell us whatever we need to know."

"Meh, it's just from that lame geology club I signed up for they're going on a field trip to a cave or some dumb thing." Lance scoffed tossing the letter aside.

"That actually sounds kinda fun," Rogue inserted picking up the letter, "Ah never knew you were in the geology club."

"Yeah, I signed up for it, but apparently so did Red and Summers, so I stopped going. I should really get off their mailing list." Lance stated, but he had no intention of putting out any effort to get his name off the stupid list.

Kitty snorted, "Like, why would you wanna sign up for the 'geology club' anyway? I totally can't picture you hanging around with a bunch of rock obsessed nerds!"

"I thought it might help with my training, y'know, geology study of . . . earth stuff and I make earthquakes . . . Oh, never mind, it was a dumb idea, hence why I never go." Lance said defensively.

"I'd go, then at least I'd get my moneys worth." Todd said sitting up, "I mean who knows you might even get to push Summers off the mountain or something."

"Yeah, except joining was free." Lance stated not taking the hint. "It's the blasted field trips that actually cost money."

"I'm sure you could get Mystique to pay." Todd insisted.

Lance sat up angrily and glared over at Todd, "Well maybe I-" Lance stopped finally catching on, "will go."

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(Day of the Field Trip)

"Why didn't you pack the night before?" Todd asked as he crammed even more stuff into Lance's already over stuffed back pack.

"I forgot! Okay?" Lance growled he was still to dazed from being woken up at 6am to pose a better argument.

"You forget everything." Todd muttered rolling his eyes.

"Maybe I've got more stuff to remember than you do, ever think of that?" Lance asked angrily as he threw on a sweater.

"Or maybe you're going senile in your young age." Todd quipped as he fought to get Lance's pack shut.

Lance snatched up his pack and headed for the door. "Maybe Rogue wont even wanna go this time and-"

"Do you know how hard it is to get a moment alone with you two gentlemen in this house?" Forge asked as he leaned against the door frame blocking Lance's escape.

For a second both just stared at Forge awkwardly. "Uh, yeah . . . no I have a bus to the mountains to catch. So, love to talk now, but can't." Lance explained hurriedly as he tried to get around Forge.

"And I am suddenly overcome with exhaustion!" Todd yelped and fell over.

"Don't worry Lance I took the liberty of setting Todd's clock ahead an hour last night." Forge said simply trying to conceal his amusement at there plight.

"It's only 5am?" Lance asked stupidly before realizing he needed a new escape route. "I am suddenly also over come with exhaustion!" Lance said following Todd's example, unfortunately he fell on Todd causing the younger mutant jump back up reflexively.

"Glad you finished you're little nap cause I have a couple questions." Forge started before Todd could think up another excuse. "I was wondering a bit as to how exactly you knew I was in middleverse and- don't even think about jumping out that window -somehow managed to read a non-existent instruction manual?"

"Uh. . . I don't know?" Todd asked casting another glance at the window.

"Y'know if you don't tell me I could always go to the Xavier institute and get one of the psychics-"

"No!" Lance and Todd yelled simultaneously.

"Then tell me!" Forge demanded.

"We can't." Lance growled from the floor.

"Why not?" Forge asked plainly. "And keep the noise level down or you'll have to tell the whole Boardinghouse."

"Can we have a moment to discuss this in private?" Todd asked in a last act of desperation.

"No." Forge said with a half-smile creeping onto his face, he knew he was wearing them down.

"What do we do?" Todd asked the Lance that was still feigning unconsciousness.

"Tell him the truth?" The supposedly still unconscious Lance wondered aloud.

"But- can we trust you to keep a promise?" Todd asked locking eyes with Forge.

"Yes." Forge answered almost too eagerly.

"Well," Todd started, "I need you to promise that you wont go off and do something crazy."

"Like what?" Forge asked genuinely interested.

"How the heck should we know?" Lance growled without opening his eyes. "We can't even think up a logical excuse as to why we knew you were in middleverse."

"And believe me we tried." Todd added.

"Okay, stop stalling." Forge said flatly.

Todd shot a glance at Lance, but he was pretending to snore at the moment and all together just being unhelpful. "I knew you were in Middleverse and how to get you out because, I saw it happen before-"

"So, you're clairvoyant?" Forge asked.

Lance finally opened his eyes and looked over at Todd, "Is that what they call it when you can see the future?" Todd asked.

"Yeah, but why couldn't you tell me?" Forge asked a bit confused. "I mean it's probably part of your mutation, you should have at least told Mystique."

"No." Lance said sitting up.

"No?" Forge wondered aloud.

"Uh. . .that's one of the reasons we couldn't tell you. . ." Todd improvised.

"Or any of the others!" Lance inserted.

"Y'see Mystique's gonna go uh, bad-der and well frankly she scares me as it is, so no." Todd concluded hoping he'd buy into it.

"But-" Forge began just as Rogue walked by the door.

"Lance?" Rogue asked as she spotted him sitting on the floor. "Shouldn't you be at school already?"

Lance quickly stood up and looked at the clock. "Great, I'm late again." He growled sarcastically.

"Ah well Mahstique said she'd give me a ride to the school gym ah'm sure she'll give you one too." Rogue said before doing a double take. "Wait, again?"

"Uh, huh, I'll go wait by the car." Lance answered chipperly before brushing past Todd. "Gee, sorry I have to miss the rest of your discussion about molecular fusion, Forge, but I'm sure Todd will tell me all about it later." Then Lance bolted before Todd got a chance to protest.

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Lance sat looking out the window of the back of Mystique's car. He had originally intended to walk to school seeing as Mystique had only agreed to pay for his little field trip if he left the jeep at home so the others could drive to school. The thought of Mr. Toad's wild rides made his head hurt. Or was it the fact that Mystique was ranting on about the training session he'd botched the other day that was making his head hurt?

"You are never supposed to stop a simulation unless you're hurt!" Mystique rambled on, until she caught the glazed look in Lance's eyes. "You better start listening to me or you'll end up repeating the same mistakes!"

"That's what my History teacher said," Lance sighed.

Mystique growled as she pulled her new car into her new unmarked parking spot. She'd stopped using her old one since some idiot stole her car and the stupid police couldn't find so much as a hubcap! Rogue got out of the car first and headed over to the gym while Lance had to wrestle his backpack out of the backseat.

"Here Avalanche, you can never be too prepared." Mystique said handing him another pack.

"Er, thanks?" Lance asked, it took him a moment to realize this pack was going to be for Rogue.

Sure enough Rogue ended up sitting next to him on the bus, but what he couldn't understand was why Scott had to sit behind them ranting and complaining to Paul about how it didn't make sense that Rogue replaced Jean. How Rogue wasn't even in the club and why couldn't she have replaced Alvers who was barely a member. Of course Paul was completely sympathetic and agreed with everything Summers had to say, the loser. Usually Lance would have told Summers to shut up, but at the moment he was a bit preoccupied trying to figure out who Mystique was.

"Oh, wonderful it's starting to snow." Mr. Rhodetsky sighed sarcastically.

"Yeah, fresh powder!" Paul cheered, eagerly watching the snow fall.

Well I can rule those two out, Lance thought Mystique could never get that excited over snow and Mr. Rhodetsky would followed by the other students constantly.

Mr. Rhodetsky glared at Paul with his mirror, "This isn't a snowmobile trip, people. Too much of the white stuff means we turn around."

Lance entertained the idea of causing a small avalanche and making them all turn back, but he knew that would just lead to more trouble plus three of the people onboard would eventually guess it was his fault. Before he could picture Mystique's reaction to her plans being foiled, the bus started to go out of control. Lance's first thought was, don't panic this must have turned out alright before. Then Summers shot a laser-beam out the window, the bus stopped and the next thing he knew Rogue was smiling at the X-Geek. Lance whipped his head around to see if anyone else was frowning at this, but he realized in general no one was happy about being knocked around in the back of a school bus.

"Everybody okay?" Mr. Rhodetsky asked a bit winded himself.

"Heh. Now what?" Paul muttered.

"We head back." Mr. Rhodetsky said simply as he tried the engine that Lance knew wouldn't start, "Okay, okay, people, now, who wants to get out and push?" he asked as Rogue got out of her seat.

"Mr. Rhodetsky, why not take our snowmobiles to the cave and wait out the weather there?" Rogue suggested.

"Yes! Love that idea." Paul shouted almost over zealously.

Lance wondered for a second if some of Paul's enthusiasm was from the fact that he really wanted to get Rogue alone in the cave. He'd be easily disposed of and Summers was a little to trusting and not exactly observant, especially when he was whining about Jean. At this point everyone had pretty much cheered Mr. Rhodetsky into going along with Rogue's idea. So, it was off to the cave on snowmobiles.

"I'll drive." Lance muttered, as he walked up to Rogue who was already sitting on a snowmobile.

"Excuse me? Ah'm drivin' this one if you want Ah'm sure Paul would love tah swap me for Scott." Rogue stated as she started up her Snowmobile.

Lance rolled his eyes, "Fine, just don't drive the thing into any trees or off any cliffs." he sighed sitting down behind her.

"Ah don't make no promises." She laughed as she pulled up to Scott and Paul. "Test you're mettle, tough guy?" She asked with a wicked grin.

"What?" Lance asked not fully comprehending the situation.

"You're on" Scott answered cooly.

"Yeah." Paul cheered and Lance wondered if he was reading into the whole Mystique thing too much or if Paul really wanted to race against a rogue and one of the schools worst delinquents who had very few qualms about cheating.

Summers started out in the lead, but Lance realized pretty soon that Rogue was serious about catching up as she headed off the path and up a hill. The next thing he knew they'd flown off the top of the hill landing next to Summers.

"I thought I said no cliffs?" Lance yelped as Summers almost hit a tree.

"Oh, whoa. Look, you know what? I've had enough." Paul stated as Scott rushed to catch up with Rogue again until once again they're side by side.

"Kick him!" Rogue demanded.

"What!?" Lance asked slightly bewildered. Rogue just rolled her eyes and rammed into Summers snow mobile causing it to topple over. Lance looked back in a state of disbelief as Summers flipped his snowmobile back over.

"No trophies for second place." Rogue chuckled as Scott and Paul rode up to the Taepo Cave entrance at a much slower speed.

"How'd a southern gal like you learn to handle a snowmobile?" Scott asked as he walked up to Rogue.

Rogue chuckled again, "Let's just say I'm full of surprises."

Lance tried his best to ignore their banter, his target was Paul, because of this it wasn't until Paul slipped away from the group that he realized Summers and Rogue had already gone. Lance followed only as closely as he felt he could without being noticed. He had to assess the situation before acting, if he just barreled in he could make things end even worse than last time.

"Paul here's your friend, but I bet you never practice fighting him." Lance could her Rogue complaining, he assumed to Summers.

"I'm afraid you'd - loose that bet, Rogue. Hello Scott. Are you surprised to see me - or me?" Lance's breath caught for a second as Paul's voice shifted into Miss Darkholme's and then to Mystique's. The urge to spring into action was a strong one, but he knew showing up now might make it look like he'd been in on Mystique's plan.

"Principal Darkholme, you're Mystique?" Summers asked stupidly.

"Something Professor Xavier neglected to tell you. Nice of him, wasn't it? You have no idea what he's been hiding from you. Let me fill you in. You X-Men are nothing but puppets for Charles Xavier and I am a sharp blade cutting your strings just so I can watch you fall!" Lance had crept a little closer when Mystique started ranting. He had just gotten close enough to see the others when Mystique pushed Summers over the cliff. Something had gone horribly wrong.

"No! Scott!" Rogue yelled as she ran to the edge of the cliff. "Why did you do that?" she half-sobbed as she fell to her knees.

"I'm Protecting you, dear. From his lies." Mystique started what Lance knew would turn into another of her self-righteous rants, but Lance was just a bit sick of those by now.

"More like protecting yourself while lying to the rest of us." Lance growled as he came up behind her.

"I don't know what you're talking about Avalanche. - Now, let's rejoin the others and break the tragic news." Mystique said shifting back to Paul.

Lance cut her off forcing her back towards the cliff. "I saw what you did and even if the police wont believe me the Brotherhood will." Lance stated threateningly.

Paul just shrugged, "But the police will believe me and Rogue if we say that Scott got shoved over a cliff by some rotten delinquent. So, you better keep you're mouth shut." Paul said smugly standing next to Rogue.

"No more secrets." Rogue said in a voice just above a whisper as she took off her glove. "Your powers are mine! Your memories are mine!" She shouted as she grabbed onto Mystique's wrist. They only maintained contact for a few seconds before Mystique hit the ground and Rogue stood up. "Oh, Scott. Ah'm sorry." Rogue sighed.

"Rogue?" Lance asked noticing a strange look on her face right before she jumped over the cliff. "ROGUE!" Lance yelled leaning over the edge of the cliff to see that she was down on a ledge with Summers. "No more jumping off cliffs!"

Rogue and Scott looked up at Lance for a minute, "Look out!" Rogue shouted as Mystique smacked Lance in the back of the head knocking him down he crashed into Rogue and Summers sending all three of them into the torrents of water below.

Lance flailed around in the water a bit, he'd never been much of a swimmer, the next thing he knew he'd smacked into a rock wall and the current was pulling him under. He half-imagined he heard someone yell for him to 'hold on' over the roar of the rushing water and he did his best to obey. Then suddenly part of the wall next to him had been blasted apart and someone had latched onto the rock right next to him. Lance looked and saw Summers, but he was losing his grip. Lance realized it was because Rogue was clinging to his back and reached out to grab her, but it was too late. Both of them fell somewhere below, he had failed to save them, but he had to at least save himself. He had to tell the others what had happened. Lance pulled himself up onto the rock and looked over the edge in an effort to find any trace of Rogue or even Summers would be nice at this point. To his amazement he realized they hadn't fallen back into the water. They were on a bridge the wind had carved out of the rock, it was pretty far down there. Lance thought the rock face was slanted just enough that he might be able to climb down. He was wrong of course and ended up slipping about halfway down and landing unceremoniously on the rock bridge with a thud.

"Lance, help Scott's hurt!" Rogue exclaimed earnestly when she spotted Lance.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Lance coughed as he inched his way over to the other two, "What's wrong with Summers?"

"I think he hit his head in the fall, he's having a real hard time staying awake." Rogue explained with fear rising in her voice. "C'mon, Scott stay awake, please!"

"Lemme try." Lance muttered as he reached them, "Hey Summers if you don't stay awake I'm going to tell Freddy I found out Jean secretly still likes him."

"Don't you dare." Scott growled coming around a bit at the annoying sound of his rivals voice.

"Yeah, I'll even get Toad to provide catering." Lance said with a smile which Rogue couldn't help, but return. Scott was definitely awake now, but Rogue's smile faded fast.

"It's Mystique!" Rogue shouted as a hulking wolf jumped down onto the bridge.

"The X-Men. . . They're coming." Scott said with a bit of difficulty.

"Never thought I'd be happy to hear that." Lance muttered as he tried to position himself in-between Mystique and the others. As far as he knew their being stuck on a little rock bridge was all his fault and he intended to make up for it.

"They can't find us." Scott grumbled.

"Figures." Rogue sighed, "Ah'm gonna give 'em somethang they can find." she added as she started dragging Scott farther away from Lance and the wolf.

Mystique had the advantage here, if Lance used his powers it would most likely send them all plummeting into the depths. The only thing Lance had going for him was more hand to hand combat training than Mystique knew about. Not enough to win in an out an out brawl against her, but if he could take her by surprise or get her to make the move he wanted. . . "Whatcha gonna do Mystique? Huff and puff and run away with you're tail in between your legs?" Lance quipped just before the wolf lunged at him.

Rogue looked over in horror as the wolf's teeth sank into Lance's arm. "Open your eyes, Scott. Now!" she half-screamed ripping off his shades.

Lance swung the wolf off of his arm and over the edge, he hadn't planned on her actually biting him. Lance was about to look over the edge when a huge eagle rose up to meet him. Lance shielded his face with his already wounded arm. The next thing he knew there was a bright flash of red in front of him and the eagle shrieked as it got knocked right of the air. Lance looked over surprised to see Summers unconscious and Rogue standing over him with the remnants of Summers laser vision fading from her eyes.

"Some friendly advice, teach; don't mess with the Rogue!" She shouted almost conceitedly after the retreating bird as the X-Jet pulled up next to them.

"What would we have ever done with out the X-Jet, I wonder." Lance sighed sarcastically.

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Wolverine stood over Lance as Storm wrapped his wounded arm, "Where's your allegiance, kid? Us or-"

"The Brotherhood." Lance stated abruptly locking eyes with Wolverine almost as if he was daring the older mutant to challenge his choice.

Instead Wolverine just turned toward Rogue. "And you?"

Rogue looked frightened and confused, like she half-expected to see Wolverine grab Lance and hurtle him out of the plane. Rogue looked over at Lance and then beyond him to where Scott lay on the floor. "Do I have to choose now?" She asked.

"We've either earned your trust by now or we haven't." Wolverine stated simply.

"Ah'm sorry," Rogue said sadly as Storm left Lance to go tend after Scott, "but ah think the Brotherhood needs me more than y'all do right now."

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"Rogue!-Where-the-heck-have-you-been?-Is-Mystique-with-you?-No.-What-happened-to-you're-arm-Lance!?" Pietro asked literally the second the two of them entered the house.

Lance took a moment to process what had just been asked then responded in a much slower fashion, "Rogue's been with me and Mystique tried to kill us, but only managed to rip up my arm and give Summers a mild concussion."

"What!?-Hold-on-one-sec-I'll-get-the-others." Pietro yelped as Rogue slumped down onto the couch and Lance sat down in his favorite chair. Pretty soon the rest of the Brotherhood including a rather enlightened looking Forge and a frankly disgruntled Toad had assembled.

"Like, oh my god, like, what happened to your arm Lance!" Kitty asked as soon as she spotted it.

"I'm alright, alright? You should be more worried about Rogue." Lance suggested and sure enough Kitty was over by Rogue's side in a flash.

"So, like, what happened to you guys?" Kitty asked full of genuine concern.

"Mystique turned on us." Rogue scoffed angrily.

"She tried to off Summers and when we confronted her she tried to off us too." Lance explained.

"She was gonna tell the police Lance pushed Scott over a cliff." Rogue added. "She's been lyin' tah all of us, I saw it in her memories. The X-Men arn't really our enemies!"

Everyone was quiet fo a moment after her outburst.

"So, what do we do now?" Freddy asked.

"Tell Magneto?" Pietro suggested.

"Ah, guess." Rogue sighed.

"Maybe I could set up a security system or something. Y'know, in case she comes back." Forge said heading back down into the basement.

Rogue shuddered at the thought.

"Someone should keep watch tonight." Kitty stated trying to comfort Rogue.

"I'll do it." Lance said sitting up.

"Nah, I knew I slept through my fifth and sixth for a reason, yo? Sides you look beat, literally." Todd quipped looking Lance over.

"Well, now that's settled what are we having for dinner?" Freddy asked. "I've got ravioli."

"Honestly, Blob, is your mind always on your stomach?" Pietro asked indignantly.

"Sorry if I thought maybe Rogue and Lance might be hungry after their ordeal, Pietro." Freddy shot back as the two of them headed into the kitchen.

Kitty smiled after them, "Don't worry Rogue, no matter what happens I'm sure we can handle it if we work together."

"Um," Freddy called, "The Ravioli's done!"

"That's not done, that's dead and burning!" Pietro shouted as he ran outside to get the hose.

Kitty laughed, "See teamwork!"

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For those of you who might actually want to know, Charles Xavier made it so everyone on the little field trip forgot that Lance, Rogue, Scott or 'Paul' ever went, because sending Scott bakc with a concussion would have just been cruel.

And why did I name this chapter Stab of the Lance? Well, it's quite simple really. I was just trying to get all the Rogue fans extremely confused and just generally freaked out.


End file.
